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Submission + - SF Says AdWare Bundled with Gimp Is Intentional (google.com) 5

tresf writes: In response to a Google+ post from the Gimp project claiming that "[Sourceforge] is now distributing an ads-enabled installer of GIMP", Sourceforge had this response:

In cases where a project is no longer actively being maintained, SourceForge has in some cases established a mirror of releases that are hosted elsewhere. This was done for GIMP-Win.

Editor's note: Gimp is actively being maintained and the definition of "mirror" is quite misleading here as a modified binary is no longer a verbatim copy. Download statistics for Gimp on Windows show SourceForge as offering over 1,000 downloads per day of the Gimp software. In an official response to this incident, the official Gimp project team reminds users to use official download methods. Slashdotters may remember the last time news like this surfaced (2013) when the Gimp team decided to move downloads from SourceForge to their own FTP service.

Therefore, we remind you again that GIMP only provides builds for Windows via its official Downloads page.

Note: SourceForge and Slashdot share a corporate parent.

Comment Why now? (Score 3, Insightful) 325

These atrocities have been known for a long time, and there are already several good books on the subject (which hopefully some Slashdotters with more time can link). What I don't understand is why this report came out know? Is there some political timing involved in it coming out now as opposed to a decade ago?

Comment Re:"Patent Holder"?! (Score 1) 178

Scientific Atlanta cable tuners have been doing that for over half a decade. It isn't just limited to the cable provider either as I've been on two different providers with the same boxes and they've both had the feature. So there are definitely other boxes that do this; whether they are licensed I do not know.

Comment Re:Chinese cell phones (Score 2, Insightful) 173

Most likely because China could care less. Contrary to the image China projects about being best friends with North Korea, they are pretty much as sick as NK as the rest of the world. China has lost billions in investments to NK, and if you've ever lent $20 to someone and never had it paid back, you can begin to imagine how they feel. That being said, China does actively enforce the border, but there is a myriad of different political reasons for this. The "legal" reason is that they have pacts with North Korea in relation to this issue (hence why escaping NK aren't granted refugee status by China). Some of the other reasons include the fact that many Chinese citizens are just as paranoid about North Koreans coming across and taking Chinese jobs as Americans are about Mexico. Others have already replied to your thread and also pointed out that other reasons may include China have an equal investment in getting information out. China probably isn't interested in the trade aspect so much, as it's entirely black market and therefore next to impossible to regulate. Unfortunately I don't have an direct citations to back up the above, but I am basing most of my information off of "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea" by Barbara Demick. It's an excellent read. Most people try and draw parallels to first world countries with 1984, but the sad truth is North Korea could be considered source material.

Comment Just how does this exploit work? (Score 1) 226

I've been at work every time I've seen an article come up about the jailbreak, so I haven't had time to go digging for details (including the links off this article; I don't want to push my work's internet filter). Does anyone have an explanation as to how this jailbreak actually works? Every article I've seen doesn't go into the details other than saying it's a magic USB dongle you plug in. Can Sony even patch this hole?
Music

Brian Eno Releases Second iPhone App 196

Brian Eno, or as he is known to many in my office, "God," has released his second iPhone App. A followup to Bloom, this one is called Trope and supposedly creates darker music. You create music by drawing shapes on the iPhone's screen.

Comment Re:Not reported != not happening (Score 0) 369

they told her they'd replaced the battery and weren't charging her anything for it

Which Battery? It's my understanding that Hybrids still have a traditional 12 volt battery for the car's regular electrical systems. When I was looking at getting a Hybrid a few years back (ultimately did not end up getting one) I, like the grandparent, was unable to find any actual battery replacement stories (sans one story about a car that had a bad cell in it's pack).

NASA

Submission + - Space Shuttle Secrets Stolen for China

Ponca City, We Love You writes: "The Department of Justice has announced the indictment of former Boeing engineer Dongfan Chung on charges of economic espionage in the theft of company trade secrets relating to the Space Shuttle, the C-17 military transport aircraft and the Delta IV rocket. Chung is a native of China and a naturalized U.S. citizen who stole secrets on behalf of China, the indictment says. According to the indictment, Chinese aviation industry representatives began sending Chung 'tasking' letters as early as 1979. Over the years, the letters directed Chung to collect specific technological information, including data related to the Space Shuttle and various military and civilian aircraft. Chung allegedly responded in one letter indicating a desire to contribute to the 'motherland,' the DOJ said. It was not immediately clear how much, if any, damage the alleged espionage did to U.S. national security but DOJ officials said the cases reflect the determination of China's government to penetrate U.S. intelligence and obtain vital national defense secrets. "Today's prosecution demonstrates that foreign spying remains a serious threat in the post-Cold War world,'' said Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Patents Frustration-Detection System (arstechnica.com)

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "Microsoft has patented a frustration-detection help system that would monitor your computer use and biometrics like your heart rate to figure out when you were frustrated. It could then offer to pair you up with someone else doing exactly the same thing who might be able to help you out. Interestingly, they don't appear to use speech recognition to detect abnormal levels of swear words, but that could be due to their past difficulties with speech recognition."
Announcements

Submission + - High-quality YouTube videos coming soon (webware.com)

mlauzon writes: "YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, speaking at the NewTeeVee Live conference today, confirmed that high-quality YouTube video streams are coming soon. Although YouTube's goal, he said, is to make the site's vast library of content available to everyone, and that requires a fairly low-bitrate stream, the service is testing a player that detects the speed of the viewer's Net connection and serves up higher-quality video if viewers want it.

Why wouldn't they? Because the need to buffer the video before it starts playing will change the experience. Hence the experiment, rather than just a rapid rollout of this technology. On stage, he said the current resolution of YouTube videos has been "good enough" for the site untill now.

Chen told me he expects that high-quality YouTube videos will be available to everyone within three months.

Chen also confirmed that in YouTube's internal archive, all video is stored at the native resolution in which it was sent. However, he said, a large portion of YouTube videos are pretty poor quality to begin with — 320x240. Streaming them in high-quality mode isn't going to help much."

Comment Re:that's awesome (Score 1) 506

Admiral William D. Leahy - "This is the biggest fool thing we have ever done. The bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives." said to president Harry S. Truman, after Vannevar Bush explained how the atomic bomb worked. One man's opinion, no matter how high in rank, does not make him right.
Education

Submission + - Students Tracked With RFID Chips

An anonymous reader writes: The Hungerhill School in Edenthorpe, England has initiated a program that puts RFID chips in the student's uniforms to keep track of there whereabouts as reported by Yahoo. A group called 'Leave Them Kids Alone' is opposing the program. Security Expert Bruce Schneier blogs: "...Now it's easy to cut class; just ask someone to carry your shirt around the building while you're elsewhere." Another disturbing 'Think of the Children' program. At least it doesn't explode if you leave the school boundaries.
Books

Submission + - Top Ten Strangest or Cruellest Science Experiments 1

aalobode writes: "The Times of London has a current story based on the review of a book by Alex Boase, Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments. There they list the top science experiments — including the one from which the book gets its name — that were conducted by otherwise sane humans who tragically or otherwise ignored the effect of their research on the subjects themselves. Nowadays, most institutions have a review board for research on human subjects which would flag most proposals that could lead to harm for the subjects, but not so in the past. See for yourself at the url http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2779808.ece?OTC-HPtoppuff&ATTR=elephants"

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