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Cellphones

Submission + - Five GPS games to play with your smartphone (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by Barence
Barence writes: If your handset doesn’t get you out and about, tramping through mud, climbing over styles and hunting for hidden treasure, then something needs an upgrade. Your phone, your life, or maybe both. The iPhone, Blackberry’s Storm and Bold lines, and many Symbian and Android handsets now sport GPS, which makes your smartphone the ticket to join a global movement of outdoor games. These are outbound challenges that pit teams and solo players against themselves and each other in the search for hidden treasure, undiscovered landmarks and hidden spots all over the world. This feature delves into five of the best smartphone-friendly real-world games, each of which is a bridge between the online and offline worlds.
Patents

Submission + - Facebook patents the news feed (thenextweb.com)

Submitted by daedae
daedae writes: It seems Facebook has been granted a patent for the news feed, as a method of monitoring activities, storing them in a database, and displaying an appropriate set of activities to an appropriate set of users.
Software

Submission + - Should I take Toyota's software update? (toyota.com) 1

Submitted by kiehlster
kiehlster writes: I'm a software developer, and I know most software has bugs, but how much trust can we put in the many lines of code found in our automobiles? I have a 2009 Camry that is involved in both of the recent Camry recalls. As part of the floor mat issue, they're offering to install a software update that would cause "the brake pedal to take precedence over the gas pedal if both were pressed" or, as their latest notice states, "would cut power to the engine if both pedals were pressed." In the computer world, we're all taught to only install firmware updates if there is a real problem because a large percentage of firmware updates actually brick the hardware or cause other unforeseen bugs. With 100 million lines of code can I really trust a software update to work safely when it is delivered in a three month development cycle? My driving habits don't cause the floor mat to slide much, so I see the update as overkill. What do you think? If it doesn't void the warranty, should I tell them to skip the software update?
Games

Game Endings Going Out of Style? 190

Posted by Soulskill from the to-be-continued dept.
An article in the Guardian asks whether the focus of modern games has shifted away from having a clear-cut ending and toward indefinite entertainment instead. With the rise of achievements, frequent content updates and open-ended worlds, it seems like publishers and developers are doing everything they can to help this trend. Quoting: "Particularly before the advent of 'saving,' the completion of even a simple game could take huge amounts of patience, effort and time. The ending, like those last pages of a book, was a key reason why we started playing in the first place. Sure, multiplayer and arcade style games still had their place, but fond 8, 16 and 32-bit memories consist more of completion and satisfaction than particular levels or tricky moments. Over the past few years, however, the idea of a game as simply something to 'finish' has shifted somewhat. For starters, the availability of downloadable content means no story need ever end, as long as the makers think there's a paying audience. Also, the ubiquity of broadband means multiplayer gaming is now the standard, not the exception it once was. There is no real 'finish' to most MMORPGs."
Image

The Perfect Way To Slice a Pizza 282

Posted by samzenpus from the equal-distribution-of-the-pie dept.
iamapizza writes "New Scientist reports on the quest of two math boffins for the perfect way to slice a pizza. It's an interesting and in-depth article; 'The problem that bothered them was this. Suppose the harried waiter cuts the pizza off-center, but with all the edge-to-edge cuts crossing at a single point, and with the same angle between adjacent cuts. The off-center cuts mean the slices will not all be the same size, so if two people take turns to take neighboring slices, will they get equal shares by the time they have gone right round the pizza — and if not, who will get more?' This is useful, of course, if you're familiar with the concept of 'sharing' a pizza."

Comment Re:NAT is a good thing (Score 1) 192

by claybats (#29909339) Attached to: The Software Router As MiFi Killer
I will add on range. I live just out of town where my only internet options are Verizon Wireless MiFi, Dial-up, or Satellite. The Mifi works best, but only if I place it in a window on one end of the house. Otherwise I just don't get a reliable signal. My computer is in the center of the house and the wireless signal just doesn't quite reach. In my case a WiFi router built into the computer would be redundant.
Windows

Microsoft To Disable Autorun 429

Posted by timothy from the mounting-is-fine-but-opening-is-obnoxious dept.
jchrisos writes "Microsoft is planning to disable autorun in the next Release Candidate of Windows 7 and future updates to Windows XP and Vista. In order to maintain a 'balance between security and usability,' non-writable media will maintain its current behavior however. In any case, if it means no more autorun on flash drives, removable hard drives and network shares, that is definitely a step in the right direction. Will be interesting to see what malware creators do to get around this ..."
Security

Australian Gov't Offers $560k Cryptographic Protocol For Free 163

Posted by Soulskill from the as-in-beer dept.
mask.of.sanity writes "Australia's national welfare agency will release its 'unbreakable' AU$560,000 smart card identification protocol for free. The government agency wants other departments and commercial businesses to adopt the Protocol for Lightweight Authentication of ID (PLAID), which withstood three years of design and testing by Australian and American security agencies. The agency has one of Australia's most advanced physical and logical converged security systems: staff can access doors and computers with a single centrally-managed identity card, and user identities can be automatically updated as employees leave, are recruited or move to new departments. PLAID, which will be available soon, is to be used in the agency's incoming fleet of contact-less smartcards that are currently under trial by staff. It will replace existing identity cards that operate on PKI encryption."
Google

Justice Dept. Opens Antitrust Inquiry Into Google Books Deal 112

Posted by Soulskill from the real-page-turner dept.
Mad Hamster points out a NY Times report that the US Department of Justice has launched an antitrust inquiry (may require free registration) to take a look at the deal Google has made with book publishers and authors for its Book Search service. Quoting: "Lawyers for the Justice Department have been in conversations in recent weeks with various groups opposed to the settlement, including the Internet Archive and Consumer Watchdog. More recently, Justice Department lawyers notified the parties to the settlement, including Google, and representatives for the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild, that they were looking into various antitrust issues related to the far-reaching agreement. The inquiry does not necessarily mean that the department will oppose the settlement, which is subject to a court review. But it suggests that some of the concerns raised by critics, who say the settlement would unfairly give Google an exclusive license to profit from millions of books, have resonated with the Justice Department." Update — 4/29 at 14:25 by SS: CNet has new information on the extension Google was seeking in order to contact rightsholders for a decision on whether to join the settlement or opt out. Google had originally asked for 60 days, but a judge has now granted them four more months.

Comment Re:Depends on where you live.... (Score 1) 736

by claybats (#23040134) Attached to: Cities Tampering With Traffic Lights To Generate Revenue
Anecdotal story here. Where I live the lights are relatively short. I know if I miss a green I only have to wait 45-55 seconds for another. Very little incentive for me to run the light.

Where my brother lives, lights are long. If you miss a light you have to wait 3-5 minutes for the next. This provides a lot of incentive to run the red lights. There are a lot more people running lights where he lives than where I live.

Now I live in a smaller Northern city, and my brother lives in a large Southern city so there are lots of cultural and environmental differences that could account for the results.

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