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Comment alternatives? (Score 1) 104

by DavidB (#55262259) Attached to: China Blocks WhatsApp

So what can be used instead if you need end to end encryption? Signal might work, but I'd be surprised if it isn't blocked. Tor has a chat client now, but I don't think it works on iOS or Android. Keybase.io has a nice client that might work.
Android

Submission + - FBI issues Android virus warning (ic3.gov)

Submitted by Dupple
Dupple writes: The IC3 has been made aware of various malware attacking Android operating systems for mobile devices. Some of the latest known versions of this type of malware are Loozfon and FinFisher. Loozfon is an information-stealing piece of malware. Criminals use different variants to lure the victims. One version is a work-at-home opportunity that promises a profitable payday just for sending out email. A link within these advertisements leads to a website that is designed to push Loozfon on the user's device. The malicious application steals contact details from the user’s address book and the infected device's phone number.
Linux

Submission + - Reiser4 File-System Still In Development (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Reiser4 still hasn't been merged into the mainline Linux kernel, but it's still being worked on by a small group of developers following Hans Reiser being convicted for murdering his wife. Reiser4 was updated in September on SourceForge to work with the Linux 3.5 kernel and has been benchmarked against EXT4, Btrfs, XFS, and ReiserFS. Reiser4 loses out in most of the Linux file-system performance tests, has much stigma due to Hans Reiser, and Btrfs is surpassing it feature-wise, so does it have any future in Linux ahead?
Software

Submission + - Adobe's iPhone Hail Mary (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister questions whether the move to port Flash to the iPhone isn't a last-ditch effort on Adobe's part to remain relevant in the quickly evolving smartphone market. By allowing developers to compile existing Flash apps into native binaries, Adobe believes it has found a way around Apple's requirements that no non-Apple API interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an app, a clause that has also prevented Sun from porting JVM to the iPhone. The resulting apps will be completely stand-alone, with no runtimes and no Flash Player required — if Apple lets Adobe get away with it, no small feat given the how protective Apple has been about its app market. But as much as Apple has at stake here, Adobe may actually have more, McAllister writes. 'Already the idea of using Web languages and tools to build smartphone applications is taking hold. Palm has built an entire smartphone platform around the idea. Apple supports the use of Web technologies like AJAX to build applications based on the iPhone's Safari browser. And developers will soon even be able to build Web-based applications for BlackBerry handsets, thanks to a new SDK from Research in Motion. As late to the game as it is, what Adobe needs now is to convince developers that Flash is better than the other options — and that could be a tough sell.'"
Music

Submission + - When Composers & Fans Meet: Deus Ex ReMix (ocremix.org)

Submitted by djpretzel
djpretzel writes: OverClocked ReMix (www.ocremix.org) has just posted its first collaboration between a game composer and a fan/remixer — Alexander Brandon (Unreal, Deus Ex, Tyrian) teamed up with artist/judge Big Giant Circles (Jimmy Hinson) for a ReMix of 'The Synapse (Hong Kong Streets)' from Deus Ex. The mix is freely available, along with an interview of Brandon that covers his long history in VGM, from the tracker/demoscene up to his latest work on Dust: An Elysian Tail.
Security

How Dangerous Could a Hacked Robot Possibly Be? 229

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i-for-one-welcome-DELETED dept.
alphadogg writes "Researchers at the University of Washington think it's finally time to start paying some serious attention to the question of robot security. Not because they think robots are about to go all Terminator on us, but because the robots can already be used to spy on us and vandalize our homes. In a paper published Thursday the researchers took a close look at three test robots: the Erector Spykee, and WowWee's RoboSapien and Rovio. They found that security is pretty much an afterthought in the current crop of robotic devices. 'We were shocked at how easy it was to actually compromise some of these robots,' said Tadayoshi Kohno, a University of Washington assistant professor, who co-authored the paper."
Classic Games (Games)

The Ethics of Selling GPLed Software For the iPhone 782

Posted by Soulskill from the should-vs-does dept.
SeanCier writes "We're a small (two-person) iPhone app developer whose first game has recently been released in the App store. In the process, we've inadvertently stepped in it, bringing up a question of the GPL and free software ethics that I'm hoping the Slashdot community can help us clear up, one way or the other. XPilot, a unique and groundbreaking UNIX-based game from the early/mid nineties, was a classic in its day, but was forgotten and has been dead for years, both in terms of use and development. My college roommate and I were addicted to it at the time, even running game servers and publishing custom maps. As it's fully open source (GPLv2), and the iPhone has well over twice the graphics power of the SGI workstations we'd used in college, we decided it was a moral imperative to port it to our cellphones. In the process, we hoped, we could breathe life back into this forgotten classic (not to mention turning a years-old joke into reality). We did so, and the result was more playable than we'd hoped, despite the physical limitations of the phone. We priced it at $2.99 on the App store (we don't expect it to become the Next Big Thing, but hoped to recoup our costs — such as server charges and Apple's annual $99 developer fee), released the source on our web page, then enthusiastically tracked down every member of the original community we could find to let them know of the hoped-for renaissance. Which is where things got muddy. After it hit the App store, one of the original developers of XPilot told us he feels adamantly that we're betraying the spirit of the GPL by charging for it." Read on for the rest of Sean's question.

Comment Re:Been There, Done That (Score 2, Informative) 202

by DavidB (#13998163) Attached to: Rubik's Cube World Championships
> Obviously you cannot have just five faces "solved", but it is also not possible to have just four faces "solved".

Not true. There are many examples, but here are a couple examples sequences that leave only two faces scrambled:

1) F2 R2 F2 R2 F2 R2
2) R2 U' F2 R2 F2 U2 R2 F2 R2 U' R2

> The easiest way to split a cube apart is to rotate one side by 45 degrees, and push the protruding corner piece until its latch pops out.

That's a pretty rough way to do it. You're better off turning the top face by 45 degrees and using a scredriver (or your finger) to pry one of the edge pieces upward until it pops out. The rest of the pieces will come out pretty easily after that.

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