Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Portables

Canonical Demos Early Stage Android-On-Ubuntu 165

Posted by kdawson from the source-code-soon dept.
An anonymous reader notes Ars Technica's report from the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Barcelona, where Canonical has unveiled a prototype Android execution environment that will allow Android applications to run on Ubuntu and "potentially other conventional Linux distributions." "Android uses the Linux kernel, but it isn't really a Linux platform. It offers its own totally unique environment that is built on Google's custom Java runtime. There is no glide path for porting conventional desktop Linux applications to Android. Similarly, Java applications that are written for Android can't run in regular Java virtual machine implementations or in standard Java ME environments. This makes Android a somewhat insular platform. Canonical is creating a specialized Android execution environment that could make it possible for Android applications to run on Ubuntu desktops in Xorg alongside regular Linux applications. The execution environment would function like a simulator, providing the infrastructure that is needed to make the applications run. Some technical details about the Android execution environment were presented by Canonical developer Michael Casadevall... They successfully compiled it against Ubuntu's libc instead of Android's custom libc and they are running it on a regular Ubuntu kernel."
Books

Google To Remove "Inappropriate" Books From Digital Library 192

Posted by timothy from the limited-resources dept.
Miracle Jones writes "In an interview with Professor (and former Microsoft employee) James Grimmelmann at the New York Law School, who is both setting up an online clearinghouse to discuss the Google book settlement and drafting an amicus brief to inform the court about the antitrust factors surrounding "orphan books," he revealed that Google will be able to moderate the content of its book scans in the same way that they moderate their YouTube videos, leaving out works that Google deems "inappropriate" from the 7 million library books it has scanned. The Fiction Circus has called for a two-year long rights auction that will ensure that these "inappropriate" titles do not get left behind in the digital era, and that other people who are willing to host and display these books will be able to do so. There is only one week left for authors and publishers to "opt out" of the settlement class and retain their rights or raise objections, and Brewster Kahle's Internet Archive has been stopped from jumping on board Google's settlement as a party defendant and receiving the same legal protections that Google will get. A group of authors, including Philip K. Dick's estate, has tried to delay the settlement for four more months until they get their minds around the issue." In related news, Google is seeking a 60-day extension to the period in which it's attempting to contact authors to inform them of their right to opt-out of the terms of the settlement.

Comment Re:Hiopcrits? (Score 1) 763

by deejay1 (#26927825) Attached to: Do Video Games Cost Too Much?

About restricting access to the British store from non-British customers, well I kind of doubt that's illegal. Do you (or someone on the Steam forums) have a source for this law?

Here you go: Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 1997 on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31997L0007:EN:HTML

(2) Whereas the free movement of goods and services affects not only the business sector but also private individuals; whereas it means that consumers should be able to have access to the goods and services of another Member State on the same terms as the population of that State;

Comment Re:Hiopcrits? (Score 1) 763

by deejay1 (#26927227) Attached to: Do Video Games Cost Too Much?

The complaining about this change would seem to stem from the fact that European (and at one point British) customers used to be able to save a crapload of money by buying games in dollars, and now they're forced to pay prices more realistic for their own countries. Greed, plain and simple.

Well, but the point is the prices on Steam aren't even realistic, heck retail boxed games when compared to Steam games can cost a whopping 50% less (eg. Steam 49,99 euro, retail 25,00 euro on release date!). Also the complaining is about blocking access to the UK store which isn't allowed by EU laws. We have a more or less free market, so how would you feel if you weren't allowed to buy any products which were manufactured and are sold outside Great Britain of even if you couldn't (weren't allowed to) buy products sold in Scotland or Wales for that matter? Well, I think the British economy would be a pretty fracked if it couldn't import any products at all...

Comment Re:Hiopcrits? (Score 1) 763

by deejay1 (#26927057) Attached to: Do Video Games Cost Too Much?

Everything in Europe is expensive due to their overrated Euro.

Actually that's a different issue with regard to the Steam store, the exchange rate has nothing to do with it. If it was that simple we would all shut up instead of buying our games at different vendors.

Comment Re:Hiopcrits? (Score 1) 763

by deejay1 (#26927041) Attached to: Do Video Games Cost Too Much?
Well, as you can read from the 4000+ posts in their forums actually the British get better prices than the rest of Europe or even the US. For example I get you a comparison from 17.1.2009, all values are in USD - Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures EU: 52,63 UK: 33,61 US: 39,99 And that's only one example

Comment Hiopcrits? (Score 4, Interesting) 763

by deejay1 (#26926987) Attached to: Do Video Games Cost Too Much?
Well, but he didn't mention the situation with Valve's store in Europe where prices are much higher for two months now as they used to be. And there's no answer at all from Valve even though there's a massive thread over at their forums and even sites are being created about this issue. Just take a look at http://steamunpowered.eu/ or http://www.steamrepowered.eu/
The Almighty Buck

Do Video Games Cost Too Much? 763

Posted by Soulskill from the depends-how-the-pirate-bay-trial-goes-right dept.
Valve's Gabe Newell gave the keynote address at this year's Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain (DICE) Summit about the cost of games, the effect of piracy, and how to reach new players. Valve undertook an experiment recently to test how price affected the sales of their popular survival-horror FPS, Left 4 Dead. They Reduced the price by 50% on Steam, which "resulted in a 3000% increase in sales of the game, posting overall sales that beat the title's original launch performance." They also tested various other price drops over the holidays, seeing spikes in sales that corresponded well to the size of the discount. This will undoubtedly add to the speculation that game prices have risen too high for the current economic climate. G4TV ran a live blog of Newell's presentation, providing a few more details.
First Person Shooters (Games)

Unreal Tournament 3 "Titan Pack" Expansion Coming In March 67

Posted by Soulskill from the price-is-right dept.
An anonymous reader writes with news that Unreal Tournament 3 will be getting a free expansion called Titan Pack on March 5th. It will contain a variety of new maps, and two new game modes: Greed and Betrayal. There will also be new weapons, deployables, and achievements. IGN's preview of the expansion mentions a few more improvements, such as an improved voting system and client-side demo recording for the PC version. Quoting: "... the most obvious addition to the series is the new Titan. As you play through the game, killing enemies, completing goals and generally avoiding damage, you'll build up your Titan meter. Once it fills up, you can instantly mutate into a 15' tall Titan. The Titan has massive health, a decent shield belt and can fire homing rockets. Oh, and he can also pound the ground to knock back any enemies that get too close. In short, the Titan is a real game changer."
Patents

FTC Pursues Rambus Appeal To Supreme Court 50

Posted by kdawson from the acting-like-regulators dept.
pheede writes "SCOTUSblog brings us news that the FTC has appealed the recent circuit court decision regarding Rambus's deceptive conduct on the JEDEC standards committee, where they conveniently avoided telling anyone that they owned patents on the resulting standards. The FTC, which is proceeding on its own without help from the Justice Department, notes the circuit court's 'sweeping rules that would immunize' deceptive conduct by would-be monopolists 'in most circumstances.'"
United States

Who Will Obama Choose As Copyright Czar? 174

Posted by timothy from the lessig-has-my-bet dept.
seanpark writes "Who will President Elect Obama select for the recently established post of Copyright Czar? Biden has a longstanding relationship with Big Content, and he was partly responsible for the PRO-IP Act that created the position. The short list according to the article includes a few lobbyists (who would likely be disqualified by stringent ethical guidelines) and Lawrence Lessig, who was a technology adviser to the Obama Campaign."
Software

Submission + - The Really Fair Scheduler (kerneltrap.org)

Submitted by
derrida
derrida writes: "During the many threads discussing Ingo Molnar's recently merged Completely Fair Scheduler, Roman Zippel has repeatedly questioned the complexity of the new process scheduler. In a recent posting to the Linux Kernel mailing list he offered a simpler scheduler named the 'Really Fair Scheduler' saying, "as I already tried to explain previously CFS has a considerable algorithmic and computational complexity. This patch should now make it clearer, why I could so easily skip over Ingo's long explanation of all the tricks CFS uses to keep the computational overhead low — I simply don't need them.""
Security

Submission + - German Govt. Ponders Trojans for Terrorists (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by wordsnyc
wordsnyc writes: The German government is apparently seriously considering an attempt to infect the computers of terror suspects with phone-home trojans.

According to the BBC:

  German government plans to spy on terror suspects by deploying malicious e-mails have drawn sharp criticism.

The e-mails would contain Trojans — software that secretly installs itself on suspects' computers, allowing agents to search the hard drives.

German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is quoted as saying the spyware would be used only in a few cases and for a limited time. ....

According to German media reports, the malicious e-mails could appear to come from different official bodies.

Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries, of the Social Democrats (SPD), has voiced concern about the spyware plans, saying they might infringe privacy laws, the Deutsche Welle news website reports.
Microsoft

Lobbying Could Cause Legal Trouble for Microsoft 138

Posted by Zonk from the keep-it-above-board-maybe dept.
Rob Isn't Weird writes "In the wake of the exposure of Microsoft's attempt to buy Sweden's vote on OOXML and Sweden's annulment of that vote due to irregularities, IBM's Rob Weir points out that the fiasco could cause anti-trust worries for Microsoft. He quotes ALLIED TUBE & CONDUIT CORP. v. INDIAN HEAD, INC., 486 U.S. 492 (1988), which says 'What petitioner may not do (without exposing itself to possible antitrust liability for direct injuries) is bias the process by, as in this case, stacking the private standard-setting body with decision makers sharing their economic interest in restraining competition.'"

Slashdot Top Deals

Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death. -- James F. Byrnes

Close