Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Games

Submission + - Gamestop To Build its Own Gaming Tablet? (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "Gamestop has been on a roll lately, purchasing both Impulse and Spawn Labs in the past week. Now it's ready to go after those casual gaming dollars, but first it needs to put a gaming tablet in your hands. Gamestop President Tony Bartel told CNBC that his chain is going to start selling tablets later this year:

If we can work with our partners and the OEMs and they come up with a great tablet that is enabled with a great gaming experience and coupled with a bluetooth controller, then there's no need to go out and develop our own. But if we can't find one that's great for gaming, then we will create our own.

"

Submission + - Controllers: Air traffic system 'not safe' (zdnet.co.uk)

Submitted by
Jack Spine
Jack Spine writes: "Air traffic control technology being implemented in one of the major transport hubs in the UK is 'not safe', according to air traffic controllers. The electronic flight data system (EFD) being phased in at Glasgow Prestwick Airport is too slow to handle real-time inputs, and could not cope with an outage that isolated it from the main air traffic system. Controllers had to scramble to handle the situation. Good luck if you're travelling to the UK anytime soon."
Google

Submission + - Bing Becomes No.2 Search Engine Globally, Still at (statcounter.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Bing Becomes No.2 Search Engine Globally, Still at 4.4%

Bing has overtook Yahoo for the first time worldwide in January and increased its lead in February according to web analytics company, StatCounter. Its research arm StatCounter Global Stats finds that globally Bing reached 4.37% in February ahead of Yahoo! at 3.93%. Both trail far behind Google's 89.94% of the global search engine market.

In the United States Yahoo! at 9.74% still retains its lead over Bing at 9.03%. Google's share in the US is 79.63%. In July 2009 Microsoft announced an agreement whereby Bing would power the Yahoo! search and it has been implemented in the US, Canada, Australia, Brazil and Mexico.

Statecounter: http://gs.statcounter.com/press/bing-overtakes-yahoo-globally-for-first-time
Microsoft

Submission + - Lobbyists attack UK open standards policy (zdnet.co.uk)

Submitted by
superglaze
superglaze writes: "The Business Software Alliance, a lobbying organisation representing the likes of Microsoft, Adobe and Apple, has laid into the UK's recently-adopted policy of mandating the use of open standards wherever possible in government IT systems.The policy describes open standards as being "publicly available at zero or low cost" and having "intellectual property made irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis" The BSA said this would "inadvertently reduce choice [and] hinder innovation", and even went so far as to claim open standards would lead to higher e-government costs, but open-source advocates say the policy reflects how much the European Interoperability Framework is weighted in favour of the proprietary software companies."

Submission + - Full bladder improves decision making (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by
anymouse
anymouse writes: "What should you do when you really, REALLY have to "go"? Make important life decisions, maybe. Controlling your bladder makes you better at controlling yourself when making decisions about your future, too, according to a study to be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science."
Security

Submission + - Keys leaking through the air at RSA 1

Submitted by NumberField
NumberField writes: The RSA Conference is underway in San Francisco. A theme among the opening speakers is that the attackers are winning, and even well-funded organizations like NASDAQ can't secure their networks reliably. The show floor is lively, but dominated by the typical firewalls and "compliance solutions". One interesting exception is a scary side channel analysis demo in the Cryptography Research booth using GNU Radio to capture secret keys from various smartphones from about 10 feet away. (The method is related to early computer music using AM radio interference.)

Submission + - FCC Moves to Convert Phone Fund to Broadband Fund (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by medv4380
medv4380 writes: The Federal Communications Commission is expected to change the Universal Service Fund and instead of having the funds go towards Rural Phone Infrastructure it would not go towards Broadband Infrastructure. You can see a transcript of what was presented to the FCC here.

Submission + - Canada Courts Quashes Govt. Decision on Globalive (theglobeandmail.com)

Submitted by sitkill
sitkill writes: The Canadian Government has rejected the Tory Cabinet's decision to overturn a CRTC mandate not allowing Globalive (which is more commonly known in Canada as the mobile carrier Wind) to operate in Canada. This is a small vindication to the enbattled CRTC which has been recently in the spotlight for it's recent decision on usage based billing, which has also come under criticism by the Tory Cabinet.

The CEO, Mr. Lacavera, stressed that this would not result in Globalive's Wind Mobile being shut down, simply that it would require another round of wrangling with the regulator over how much foreign influence is acceptable in a Canadian telecommunications company.".
Open Source

Submission + - Fedora Infrastructure Compromised (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: The infrastructure of the Fedora Project was compromised over the weekend and an account belonging to a Fedora contributor was taken over by an attacker. However, Fedora officials said they don't believe that the attacker was able to push any changes to the Fedora package system or make any actual changes to the infrastructure.

The attack appears to have targeted one specific user account, which had some high-value privileges. The attacker was able to compromise the account externally, and then had the ability to connect remotely to some Fedora systems. The attacker also changed the account's SSH key, Fedora officials said.
Movies

Submission + - 3D Cinema Doesn't Work And Never Will (suntimes.com)

Submitted by
circletimessquare
circletimessquare writes: "Walter Murch, one of the most technically knowledgeable film editors and sound designers in the film industry today, argues, via Rogert Ebert's journal in the Chicago Sun-Times, that 3D cinema can't work, ever. Not just today's technology, but even theoretically. Nothing but true holographic images will do. The crux of his argument is simple: 600 million years of evolution has designed eyes that focus and converge in parallel, at the same distance. Look far away at a mountain, and your eyes focus and converge far away, at the same distance. Look closely at a book, and your eyes focus and converge close, at the same distance. But the problem is that 3D cinema technology asks our eyes to converge at one distance, and focus at another, in order for the illusion to work, and this becomes very taxing, if not downright debilitating, and even, for the eyes of the very young, potentially developmentally dangerous. Other problems (but these may be fixable) include the dimness of the image, and the fact that the image tends to "gather in," even on Imax screens, ruining the immersive experience."
Facebook

Facebook To Make Facebook Credits Mandatory For Games 116

Posted by Soulskill from the hope-that's-ok-with-you dept.
An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from TechCrunch: "Facebook has confirmed that it is indeed making Facebook Credits mandatory for Games, with the rule going into effect on July 1 2011. Facebook says that Credits will be the exclusive way for users to get their 'real money' into a game, but developers are still allowed to keep their own in-game currencies (FarmBucks, FishPoints, whatever). For example, Zynga can charge you 90 Facebook Credits for 75 CityCash in CityVille. ... The company acknowledges that some developers may not be pleased with the news, explaining this is why it is announcing the news five months in advance, so it can 'have an open conversation with developers.' The rule only applies to Canvas games (games that use Facebook Connect aren't affected), and while it's games only at this part, Facebook says that it eventually would like to see all apps using Facebook Credits. It's a move that's been a long time coming — there has been speculation that Facebook would do this for a year now, spurring plenty of angst in the developer community."
Security

Submission + - Compromised .giv, .mil, .edu sites for sale (krebsonsecurity.com) 1

Submitted by Khopesh
Khopesh writes: Imperva blogged today about the sale of compromised .gov, .mil, and .edu sites, illustrating that cyber-criminals are getting bolder. Krebs on Security has an unredacted view of the site list. Perhaps the biggest threat is yet to come; if an industrious criminal can break into top government and military sites, so too can government-backed teams, proving that GhostNet and Stuxnet are just the beginning...
Medicine

Woman's Voice Restored After Larynx Transplant 246

Posted by Soulskill from the wonder-if-she-sounds-like-herself dept.
mvar writes "A woman in the US is able to speak for the first time in 11 years after a pioneering voicebox transplant. Brenda Jensen said the operation, which took place in California, was a miracle which had restored her life. Thirteen days after the surgery she said her first words: 'Good morning, I want to go home.' It is the first time a larynx and windpipe have been transplanted at the same time (image) and only the second time a larynx has ever been transplanted. In October, surgeons at the University of California Davis Medical Center removed the larynx, thyroid gland and 6cm of the trachea from a donor body. In an 18-hour operation, this was transplanted into Ms. Jensen's throat and the team connected it to her blood supply and nerves. Thirteen days later, she was able to speak her first croaky words and is now able to talk easily for long periods of time."
Music

RIAA Threatens ICANN Over Music-Themed gTLD Standards 174

Posted by Soulskill from the same-old-song-and-dance dept.
think_nix writes "A letter to ICANN (PDF) from Victoria Sheckler, Deputy General Counsel for the RIAA, demands modifications to the future implementation of the .music gTLD, threatening to 'escalate the issue' if certain concerns about 'wide scale copyright and trademark infringement' are not addressed by ICANN in compliance with the RIAA. 'Under the current proposed standard, we fear that we will have no realistic ability to object if a pirate chooses to hijack a music themed gTLD to enable wide scale copyright infringement of our works,' Sheckler said."
Piracy

Sony Planning Serial Keys For PS3 Games? 283

Posted by Soulskill from the keep-digging-that-hole dept.
Stoobalou writes "Rumor has it that Sony is looking to the PC games market to help solve its growing piracy problem on the PlayStation 3 — with the introduction of serial keys to its games. According to 'a very reliable source' quoted by PS3-Sense, Sony is attempting to address the recent revelation that it failed to properly secure the private signing key for its flagship console — leading to clever tinkerers producing third-party firmware that allows unofficial software and illegitimately downloaded games to run on unmodified hardware — by looking to the PC retail market for solutions. Unlike the PS3, the PC doesn't have a hardware DRM system built in to it — despite attempts by groups like the Trusted Computing Group, formerly the Trusted Computer Platform Alliance, to introduce such a thing — relying instead on software-based DRM and a surprisingly old-fashioned guarantee of a game's uniqueness: a serial key."

Slashdot Top Deals

I wish you humans would leave me alone.

Close