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Comment Smaller Screens are Out (Score 1) 2

by blastfamy (#36081388) Attached to: More Reason For Apple To Release iPhone 5 Lite
Smaller screens mean developer headaches for both iOS developers and 3rd-party developers alike. Changing either the size of the interface or the dimensions of pixels that make up that interface would mean that developers would have to re-factor their UI's for ANOTHER iOS device. Not an appealing prospect. App Store submissions aside, pretty sure Apple doesn't want to piss of their developers with another set of specs to adhere to in a new device.

Comment blastfamy (Score 1) 2

by blastfamy (#28970479) Attached to: Facebooking Judge Catches Lawyer in Lie
Isn't there supposed to be some sort of sequestering done on the judge anyway -- that he wouldn't be affected by outside sources in the courtroom? I say that the judge should be investigated...wtf is he doing Facebook-stalking people in his courtroom anyway? CREEPER!
Earth

Submission + - 100M year old microbes found in termite guts (msn.com)

Submitted by
viyh
viyh writes: "One hundred million years ago a termite was wounded and its abdomen split open. The resin of a pine tree slowly enveloped its body and the contents of its gut.

In what is now the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar, the resin fossilized and was buried until it was chipped out of an amber mine. The resin had seeped into the termite's wound and preserved even the microscopic organisms in its gut. These microbes are the forebears of the microbes that live in the guts of today's termites and help them digest wood.

The fossil is the earliest example of a relationship between an animal and the microbes in its gut, a new study shows.

"The chances of finding a termite with its body open like this are rare," said George Poinar, an amber expert at Oregon State University who led the research, published in the latest edition of the journal Parasites and Vectors. The amber preserved the microbes with exquisite detail, including internal features like the nuclei.

"In some of these [microbes] you can actually see wood particles," Poinar told LiveScience."
Microsoft

Windows 7 Sets Direction of Low-Power CPU Market 369

Posted by kdawson from the no-less-no-more dept.
Vigile writes "News is circulating about Microsoft setting hardware limits for the Windows 7 Starter Edition rather than sticking to a 3-application limit. With just a few simple specifications, Microsoft has set the tech world spinning — not only is Microsoft deciding that a netbook is now defined as having a 10.2-in. or smaller screen, but by setting a 15-watt limit to CPU thermal dissipation they may have inadvertently set the direction of CPU technology for years to come. If Microsoft sticks to that licensing spec, then AMD, Intel, VIA, and maybe even NVIDIA (who might be building an x86 CPU) will no doubt put a new focus on power efficiency in order to cash in on the lucrative netbook market."
Biotech

Hacking Our Five Senses and Building New Ones 290

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the where-is-my-x-ray-vision dept.
ryanguill writes "Wired has an article about expanding your five (maybe six) senses to allow you to sense other things such as direction. It also talks about hijacking other senses to compensate for missing senses, such as using electrodes in your mouth to compensate for lack of eyesight. Another example is a subject wearing a belt with 13 vibrating pads. The pad pointing north would vibrate giving you a sense of direction no matter your orientation: '"It was slightly strange at first," Wächter says, "though on the bike, it was great." He started to become more aware of the peregrinations he had to make while trying to reach a destination. "I finally understood just how much roads actually wind," he says. He learned to deal with the stares he got in the library, his belt humming like a distant chain saw. Deep into the experiment, Wächter says, "I suddenly realized that my perception had shifted. I had some kind of internal map of the city in my head. I could always find my way home. Eventually, I felt I couldn't get lost, even in a completely new place."'"
Role Playing (Games)

New Fable II DLC Coming May 12th 26

Posted by Soulskill from the more-and-better dept.
Lionhead Studios today announced that their next section of downloadable content for Fable II, called See the Future, will be available on May 12th. The new content will include new quests, monsters and items, a Colosseum, and alter egos for the player's dog. Peter Molyneux also hinted at a connection to the next Fable game, saying, "... it would be pretty poor to say See the Future if it didn't have some connection." Further details are available in the latest in Lionhead's series of developer diaries.
Idle

Submission + - Philosophies and programming languages (blogspot.com)

Submitted by evariste.galois
evariste.galois writes: In Wikipedia, in every article for a programming language, there is a special section "Language Philosophy", in which the motivation and the basic principles of the language design are being analyzed. The author is investigating much further than that, the deeper connections between philosophies and programming languages, by considering most influential thinkers of all time (e.g. Plato, Descartes, Kant) and trying to figure out which programming language fits best with most aspects of their own philosophy (Did you know that Kant was the first Python programmer?). The list is not exhaustive, but this is a funny and educative start.
Education

College Police Think Using Linux Is Suspicious Behavior 1079

Posted by CmdrTaco from the so-is-your-mom dept.
FutureDomain writes "The Boston College Campus Police have seized the electronics of a computer science student for allegedly sending an email outing another student. The probable cause? The search warrant application states that he is 'a computer science major' and he uses 'two different operating systems for hiding his illegal activity. One is the regular B.C. operating system and the other is a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on.' The EFF is currently representing him."
Security

MPAA Spying Case To Be Appealed 132

Posted by samzenpus from the let's-see-what-you-got-there dept.
esocid writes "Back in 2005, the MPAA hired Robert Anderson, a former associate of TorrentSpy's owner, to illegally obtain internal emails and trade secrets. He did so by routing the email from the internal server to his own Gmail account. He subsequently sold 34 pages of stolen information for $15,000 to the MPAA. TorrentSpy owner Justin Bunnel sued them for spying, but lost the case due to a ruling that stated it was not illegal since the information was not intercepted under the Wiretap Act. The EFF called this decision a 'dangerous attempt to circumvent privacy laws,' since it implies that the unauthorized interception of anyone's personal email is legal. The appeal could have ramifications for MPAA president Dan Glickman, as the decision is expected around the time of his contract renewal."
Windows

83% of Businesses Won't Bother With Windows 7 545

Posted by CmdrTaco from the count-me-in dept.
Olipro writes "Most enterprises stated they won't bother with Windows 7 for at least a year as they simply continue to distrust that compatibility issues won't occur with their mission-critical software ... The Million Dollar question will be whether the fact that XP upgrades to Windows 7 requires a clean install will prove to be Microsoft's undoing." I suspect that will change before they actually release the OS.
Worms

Twitter Gets Slammed By the StalkDaily XSS Worm 145

Posted by Soulskill from the tweety-bird-gets-the-worm dept.
CurtMonash writes "Twitter was hit Saturday by a worm that caused victims' accounts to tweet favorably about the StalkDaily website. Infection occurred when one went to the profile page of a compromised account, and was largely spread by the kind of follower spam more commonly used by multi-level marketers. Apparently the worm was an XSS attack, exploiting a vulnerability created in a recent Twitter update that introduced support for OAuth, and it was created by the 17-year-old owner of the StalkDaily website. More information can be found in the comment thread to a Network World post I put up detailing the attack, or in the post itself. By evening, Twitter claimed to have closed the security hole."

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