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Comment Re:No real opt-out (Score 1, Insightful) 130

by Ron2K (#38663638) Attached to: Facebook Adds Ads To News Feed

I'm with DCTech I only like stuff I actually like and want updates from, if you're one of those idiots who just "like's" everything then I feel no pity for you.

"One of those idiots" probably isn't applicable to most of the /. populace... but would apply to the overwhelming majority of Facebook users. ;)

Comment No real opt-out (Score 5, Informative) 130

by Ron2K (#38663542) Attached to: Facebook Adds Ads To News Feed

TFA implies that there isn't any opt-out, other than unliking pages or nuking individual ads:

Since these ads are just stories, they cannot be stopped completely (although ad blockers may find a way around this). Users do, however, have three options provided by Facebook to limit the ads: click hide to remove individual stories, limit the volume of stories you see from a specific friend to only important posts, or unfriend the person and/or unlike the Page to stop seeing certain kinds of stories altogether.

This is going to piss off more than a few people...

Submission + - Could online gamers be forced to obey the Geneva C (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by Ron2K
Ron2K writes: The Daily Mail is reporting that, with 62 billion kills in Call of Duty: Black Ops alone, a committee of the Red Cross is debating whether the International Humanitarian Law is applicable to online gamers, and if they are violating it. From the committee's site: "While the Movement works vigorously to promote international humanitarian law worldwide, there is also an audience of approximately 600 million gamers who may be virtually violating International Humanitarian Law. Exactly how video games influence individuals is a hotly debated topic, but for the first time, Movement partners discussed our role and responsibility to take action against violations of this law in video games." While it's questionable if gamers themselves can be prosecuted for not obeying the Geneva convention, the Red Cross committee's actions seem to be aimed more at game developers — as first person shooters become more realistic, do game developers have an obligation to include humanitarian elements?
Space

Submission + - First Earth Trojan asteroid discovered (discovermagazine.com) 1

Submitted by
The Bad Astronomer
The Bad Astronomer writes: "Astronomers have found the very first Earth Trojan asteroid, a rock that more-or-less shares Earth's orbit around the Sun. Seen in data by NASA's WISE mission, 2010 TK7 is about 300 meters across and leads the Earth by 60 degrees around the Sun. Trojans have been seen for Jupiter, Neptune, and Mars, but this is the first for our planet."
Networking

Submission + - Most enterprises plan to be on IPv6 by 2013 (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
Julie188
Julie188 writes: "More than 70% of IT departments plan to upgrade their websites to support IPv6 within the next 24 months, according to a recent survey of more than 200 IT professionals conducted by Network World. Plus, 65% say they will have IPv6 running on their internal networks by then, too. One survey respondent, John Mann, a network architect at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, said his organization has been making steady IPv6 progress since 2008. "Mostly IPv6 has just worked," he said. "The biggest problem is maintaining forward progress with IPv6 while it is still possible to take the easy option and fall back to IPv4.""
Security

Submission + - Security expert slams Google+ pseudonym policy (sophos.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A security expert has panned Google's "real name" policy on Google+, claiming that the hard line will damage privacy.

Sophos's Chester Wisniewski says that closing accounts where users have adopted false names erodes privacy on the social network.

"What they seemed to have missed is that the very foundation of privacy is identity. Simply knowing my postal code or birth date is meaningless without a name to associate it with. By requiring people to only use their real names, unless they just happen to be a celebrity, they have eliminated the ability for people to be private in any meaningful way."
Space

Submission + - New Soyuz Launch Facility Gets Equator Boost (pbs.org) 1

Submitted by tcd004
tcd004 writes: Russian and French teams are currently hard at work in French Guiana on the northern coast of South America, building the first Soyuz launch facility in the Western Hemisphere. Soyuz rockets normally carry 3,500 pound payloads into orbit, but from the French Guiana spaceport, the rocket will have an added benefit of being near the equator where the Earth's spin extremely fast. This extra boost allows it to deliver a 6,600 pound payload into orbit. The first launches are scheduled for October.

Submission + - Astronomers near capturing star's moment of death (digitaltrends.com)

Submitted by derGoldstein
derGoldstein writes: From DigitalTrends: "An amateur astronomer recently discovered what has been confirmed to be one of the best looks yet at a planetary nubula, the last, gassy breath of a dying star. The nebula, named Kronenberger 61 after the enthusiast who discovered it, will offer insights into the future and death of our own sun."
Microsoft

Submission + - Why Microsoft Won't Dump Bing (redmondmag.com)

Submitted by msmoriarty
msmoriarty writes: Bing is a still a money-loser for Microsoft, and the calls for the company to sell it off are growing. But according to long-time Microsoft watcher Mary-Joe Foley, dumping Bing is just not going to happen. From the article: "While the world sees Bing as a distant No. 2 search engine, Microsoft brass and bean counters see Bing as a reusable component and asset that will be built into more and more products. Those who think Microsoft will discard Bing or sell it to the highest bidder are dead wrong — that won't happen now or any time soon."
Programming

Submission + - The Rise of Git (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "InfoWorld takes a look at the rise of Git, the use of which has increased sixfold in the past three years. Buoyed in large part by interest among the Ruby community and younger developers, Git has been gaining share for open source development largely because of its distributed architecture, analysts note. And the version control system stands to gain further traction on Subversion in the years ahead, as Eclipse is making Git its preferred version control system, a move inspired by developers and members."
Cloud

Submission + - DIY Dropbox alternatives (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "Dropbox was a service that many techies fell in love with, only to be burned when they found out its dodgy security and dubious copyright claims. The company's tried to make amends — but what other options are there for those who have had enough? While there's nothing quite as seamless out there, it's not difficult to build your own Dropbox alternatives from freely available software and services from other vendors."
Security

Submission + - Sony Breach Suit A Teaching Moment On Insurance (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "A brewing legal dispute between Sony and one of its insurers over data breach liability claims highlights the challenges that companies can sometimes face in getting insurance providers to cover expenses arising from cybersecurity incidents. Zurich American Insurance Co. asked the court last week to absolve it of any responsibility for defending or indemnifying Sony against claims arising from the recent data breaches at the company. The data breaches at Sony's PlayStation Network, Sony Entertainment Online and Sony Pictures resulted in account data on close to 100 million individuals becoming exposed and over 12 million credit and debit cards being compromised. The breaches have so far resulted in at least 55 putative class-action lawsuits being filed against Sony in the U.S and another three lawsuits filed against it in Canada. Sony expects to spend close to $180 million in the next year alone on breach-related costs. But analysts say insurance might not have even been worth it in Sony's case: 'There aren't many success stories where cyber insurance [has played] a significant role in reducing the cost of incidents,' said Gartner analyst John Pescatore. Um, better security as an insurance policy maybe?"
Google

Submission + - Google grabbed locations of phones, PCs (cnet.com)

Submitted by
1800maxim
1800maxim writes: "Turns out, Google didn't grab just the hotspot SSIDs and MAC addresses. As this article from CNET outlines, Google also recorded location data of PCs/laptops, which had wireless cards, as well as cell phones and other WiFi devices. As usual, Google's explanation is that the data collection was accidental, and fails to answer further questions from CNET."
ISS

Submission + - NASA Tentatively Approves Combining SpaceX Flights (spacenews.com)

Submitted by thomst
thomst writes: Space News reports that NASA has given tentative approval for SpaceX to combine the two remaining flights designed to prove the Hawthorne, Calif., company can deliver cargo to the international space station, according to William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, although formal approval for the mission is still pending. If NASA does approve the plan, SpaceX's Dragon capsule would be the first civilian spacecraft actually to dock with the International Space Station. According to NASA spokesman Joshua Buck, the current plan calls for SpaceX to launch a Dragon capsule aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on Nov. 30, which would then rendezvous and dock with the space station on Dec. 7 — a day that would live in spaceflight history.

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