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Operating Systems

OpenBSD 5.3 Released 109

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the time-to-dump-core dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Today, OpenBSD 5.3 has been released. It has many improvements, updates, and new stuff. Also, OpenSMTPD 5.3 is included. This is the first version of OpenSMTPD considered to be ready for production. Many pre-built packages are available for many architectures. OpenBSD 5.3 ships with various Desktop Environments, including Gnome 3.6, KDE 3.5, and XFCE 4.10." And don't forget the release song, "Blade Swimmer."
Firefox

Emscripten and New Javascript Engine Bring Unreal Engine To Firefox 124

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the cycle-is-nearly-complete dept.
MojoKid writes "There's no doubt that gaming on the Web has improved dramatically in recent years, but Mozilla believes it has developed new technology that will deliver a big leap in what browser-based gaming can become. The company developed a highly-optimized version of Javascript that's designed to 'supercharge' a game's code to deliver near-native performance. And now that innovation has enabled Mozilla to bring Epic's Unreal Engine 3 to the browser. As a sort of proof of concept, Mozilla debuted this BananaBread game demo that was built using WebGL, Emscripten, and the new JavaScript version called 'asm.js.' Mozilla says that it's working with the likes of EA, Disney, and ZeptoLab to optimize games for the mobile Web, as well." Emscripten was previously used to port Doom to the browser.
Patents

Submission + - Apple ordered to share HTC deal details with Samsung (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: A US judge has ordered Apple to disclose details of its patent-sharing deal with HTC to its rival, Samsung. Apple and HTC signed a 10-year licence agreement earlier this month, but did not make the details public.

Samsung, which is also involved in various patent disputes with Apple, asked the courts to tell Apple to furnish the information. It said it was "almost certain" the deal covered some of the patents at the centre of its dispute with Apple.

The court ordered Apple to produce a full copy of the settlement agreement "without delay", subject to an "attorneys' eyes only" designation, meaning it will not be made public.

Submission + - GNOME 3 to support a "classic" mode

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: LWN.net is reporting that GNOME developer Matthias Clasen has announced that, with the upcoming demise of "fallback mode," the project will support a set of official GNOME Shell extensions to provide a more "classic" experience. "And while we certainly hope that many users will find the new ways comfortable and refreshing after a short learning phase, we should not fault people who prefer the old way. After all, these features were a selling point of GNOME 2 for ten years!"
KDE

Submission + - KDE Plasma Active 3 Improves Performance, Brings New Apps (kde.org)

Submitted by
jrepin
jrepin writes: "KDE has released the 3rd stable version of Plasma Active, KDE's device-independent user experience. The Plasma Active user interface is touch-friendly and works well across a range of devices. Its Activities function gives users a natural way to organize and access their applications, files and information. Plasma Active Three noticeably improves the user experience with its enhanced and expanded set of apps, improved performance and a new virtual keyboard."
Google

Submission + - Who sends Google the most takedown notices? Microsoft (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by
nk497
nk497 writes: "Google has released details on the copyright takedown notices its received over the past year, and the most requests by far have been from Microsoft. Over the past year, Google has received DMCA takedown notices for 2,544,209 URLs over Microsoft-related piracy, with NBC and the RIAA ranking second and third. Many of the reports do not come directly from companies such as Microsoft, but via firms set up only to chase copyright issues. The most popular targets appear to be file-sharing sites. "These days it’s not unusual for us to receive more than 250,000 requests each week, which is more than what copyright owners asked us to remove in all of 2009," said Fred von Lohmann, Google senior copyright counsel, adding it takes on average 11 hours for Google to take action."
Security

Submission + - Yahoo Includes Private Key in Source File For Axis Chrome Extension (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Yahoo on Wednesday launched a new browser called Axis and researchers immediately discovered that the company had mistakenly included its private signing key in the source file, a serious error that would allow an attacker to create a malicious, signed extension for a browser that the browser will then treat as authentic.

The mistake was discovered on Wednesday, soon after Yahoo had launched Axis, which is both a standalone browser for mobile devices as well as an extension for Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer. Yahoo is touting the browser's predictive search capability, which will guess what the user is trying to search for as she is typing and bring up thumbnail images of potential matches.

But that's not the thing that got the most attention. Within hours of the Axis launch, a writer and hacker named Nik Cubrilovic had noticed that the source file for the Axis Chrome extension included the private PGP key that Yahoo used to sign the file. That key is what the Chrome browser would look for in order to ensure that the extension is legitimate and authentic, and so it should never be disclosed publicly.
Linux

Submission + - Linux Mint 13 (Maya) Has Arrived (linuxmint.com)

Submitted by OceanMan7
OceanMan7 writes: Linux Mint 13 (Maya) has just ben released. DVDs come in 4 flavors — MATE with and without* codecs and Cinnamon with and without* codecs. MATE 1.2 is LinuxMint's community-powered extension of Gnome 2. Cinnamon 1.4 is built upon Gnome 3 but has a more traditional look and feel. As with Ubuntu 12.04, upon which LinuxMint draws, all editions come with Long-term support (LTS) until April, 2017. Maya is available from all the usual sites: as well as by torrent. (* codec-free versions comply with U.S. and Japanese IP regulations.)
Advertising

Submission + - General Motors: "Facebook Ads aren't Worth it" (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
Fluffeh
Fluffeh writes: "General Motors spends around $40 million per year on maintaining a Facebook profile and around a quarter of that goes into paid advertising. However, in a statement, they just announced that "it's simply not working". That's a bit of bad news just prior to the Facebook IPO — and while Daniel Knapp tries to sweeten the news, he probably makes it even more bitter by commenting "Advertising on Facebook has long been funded by marketing budgets reserved for trying new things. But as online advertising investments in general are surging and starting to cannibalize spend on legacy media, advertisers are rightfully asking whether the money spend is justified because it has reached significant sums now.""
Apple

Submission + - Steve Wozniak Calls For Open Apple (itnews.com.au) 1

Submitted by aesoteric
aesoteric writes: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has voiced a renewed desire to see the company open its architecture to the masses, allowing savvy users to expand and add to their products at will. However, Wozniak qualified his desire for a more open Apple by arguing that openness should not impinge on the quality of the products themselves. He also sees any change of heart on openness as a challenge when Apple continues to rake in huge cash with its current model.
Your Rights Online

Submission + - Why Anonymous 'might well be the most powerful organization on Earth (nationalpost.com)

Submitted by wasimkadak
wasimkadak writes: Christopher Doyon, a.k.a. Commander X, sits atop a hillside in an undisclosed location in Canada, watching a reporter and photographer make their way along a narrow path to join him, away from the prying eyes of law enforcement.

It’s been a few weeks of encrypted emails back and forth, working out the security protocol to follow for interviewing Doyon, one of the brains behind Anonymous, now a fugitive from the FBI.

Doyon, who readily admits taking part in some of the highest-profile hacktivist attacks on websites last year — from Tunisia to Orlando, Sony to PayPal — was arrested in September for a comparatively minor assault on the county website of Santa Cruz, Calif., where he was living, in retaliation for the town forcibly removing a homeless encampment on the courthouse steps.

The “virtual sit-in” lasted half an hour. For that, Doyon is facing 15 years in jail.
Linux

Submission + - Slackware: I'm not dead yet!

Submitted by xclr8r
xclr8r writes: The longtime tinkering and learning distro of Linux http://www.slackware.com/ found itself at the center of rumors and speculation when its website was down for a few days. Caitlyn Martin voiced concerns in DistroWatch and declared that she would be basing the new project off a distro with a more secure future. Meanwhile contributors continued to plug along with additions to the change log http://slackware.osuosl.org/slackware64-current/ChangeLog.txt . Eventually Eric Hameleers expanded on his initial communication of "old hardware — lack of funds" to a more thorough explanation quoted in the article. Have you're pop up blocker ready: http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstrategy/270628/reports-slackwares-death-way-premature
Programming

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Getting Feedback on Programming?

Submitted by jm223
jm223 writes: I'm currently a student at a major university, where I do IT work for a fairly large student group. Most of my job involves programming, and so far everyone has been happy with my work. Since we're students, though, no one really has the experience to offer major advice or critiques, and I'm curious about how my coding measures up--and, of course, how I can make it better. CS professors can offer feedback about class projects, but my schoolwork often bears little resemblance to my other work. So, when you're programming without an experienced manager above you, how do you go about improving?

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It isn't easy being the parent of a six-year-old. However, it's a pretty small price to pay for having somebody around the house who understands computers.

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