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Comment Re:"Competitive Research" (Score 1) 380

by ribond (#35116564) Attached to: Google's Search Copying Accusation Called 'Silly'

every visit to /. I find myself arguing with the angry internet hivemind. Here I'm responding to an anonymous coward, but still feel the need to point out that the comments here have flow into fantasy.

Go read Danny Sullivans' articles - he details how the results are different, bing is not copying google and how google uses their toolbar in similiar ways. This is a tempest in a teakettle. Find something real to fight.

Hugs, Anonymous cowards - I just want to love you with the data.

Comment Re:Seriously? (Score 1) 380

by ribond (#35116536) Attached to: Google's Search Copying Accusation Called 'Silly'

Did y'all read these articles? Danny Sullivan went back over this exhaustively.

The "underhanded" things Google accused Bing of doing to get clickstream data? Google does the same things, with the same disclosure.
The "cheating" around click results? Complete BS.

Charges of "industrial espionage" based on public data? Gibberish. read the articles, then argue with me.

Google

Security Expert Warns of Android Browser Flaw 98

Posted by Soulskill from the memory-leak-leading-to-robot-revolt dept.
justice4all writes "Google is working on a fix to a zero-day flaw discovered by British security expert Thomas Cannon that could lead to user data on a mobile phone or tablet device being exposed to attack. Cannon informed Google before posting information about the flaw on his blog. 'While doing an application security assessment one evening I found a general vulnerability in Android which allows a malicious website to get the contents of any file stored on the SD card,' Cannon wrote. 'It would also be possible to retrieve a limited range of other data and files stored on the phone using this vulnerability.'" Sophos's Chester Wisniewski adds commentary on how this situation is one of the downsides to Android's increasing fragmentation in the mobile marketplace.
Earth

BP Ignored Safety Modeling Software To Save Time 203

Posted by Soulskill from the show-of-hands-who-is-surprised dept.
DMandPenfold writes "BP ignored the advice of safety modeling software in an attempt to save time before the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to a presentation slide (PDF) prepared by US investigators. The slide in question briefly appeared on the Oil Spill Commission's website in error, but was quickly retracted. Advanced cement modeling software, provided by BP's cement contractor Halliburton, had highlighted serious stability concerns with the well."
XBox (Games)

Xbox Live Enforcement — No Swastika Logo 473

Posted by Soulskill from the pursuing-the-rare-double-godwin dept.
itwbennett writes "It's one of those questions that really should never come up, but as blogger Peter Smith points out, Stephen Toulouse, the head of Xbox Live enforcement, is used to fielding all sorts of strange questions. Recently, one of those questions was apparently 'Can I use a Swastika as my logo in Call of Duty: Black Ops?' When Toulouse responded with the obvious answer ('No, of course you can't, we'll ban you.') he was met with some pushback by people he refers to as 'contrarians' and 'internet pundits' who decided to educate him on the long and storied history of the swastika as a symbol of good fortune and how just because the Nazis used it, it doesn't make the symbol itself a bad thing. Toulouse covers the topic on his blog in a post titled Context and it's an interesting read if for no other reason than to get a peek inside the day-to-day issues the Xbox Live Enforcement team deals with."
Input Devices

Robot Swarm Control On Microsoft's Surface 106

Posted by timothy from the moving-things-about dept.
zerOnIne writes "Dr. Mark Micire of UMass Lowell has built an intriguing new user interface on the Microsoft Surface, a multitouch-capable table computer. The interface is being used to control swarms of robots for disaster response, search, and rescue. One of the most interesting things about it is the intuitive tabletop joystick widget. Using a very fast hand-detection-and-identification algorithm, they can paint a touch joystick (dubbed the DREAM controller) directly underneath the hand. This joystick conforms to the size of the user's hand and tracks with hand movements, making sure that the control is always directly under the hand where the user expects it, even without haptic feedback. I've had a chance to go hands-on with this system, and I think it's truly remarkable."
Image

How To Index and Search a Video By Emotion 76

Posted by timothy from the black-beauty-special dept.
robotsrule writes "Here's a a demonstration video of EmoRate, a software program that uses the Emotiv 14-electrode EEG headset to record your emotions via your facial expressions. In the video you'll see EmoRate record my emotions while I watch a YouTube video, then index that video by emotion, and then navigate that video by simply by remembering a feeling. The web page for EmoRate explains how I used Emotiv's SDK to build the software program, and how I trained the system by watching emotionally evocative videos on YouTube while wearing the headset."
Image

Fat Fingered Sumo Wrestlers Given iPads 69

Posted by samzenpus from the 100-finger-slap dept.
The Japan Sumo Association is handing out about 60 iPads to training stables to help the wrestlers communicate because their fingers are too fat to use a regular mobile phone. From the article: "The iPad was chosen because the sumo association believed the device was big enough to cater to wrestler's fat fingers, unlike the smaller keys on mobile phones, according to reports."
Intel

Submission + - Apple sabotages Atom hackintoshes in Snow Leopard (crn.com)

Submitted by mykos
mykos writes: Apple has launched a new salvo in the ongoing war against non-proprietary hardware. A recent snow leopard update (10.6.2) gives little warning, just a cryptic message: "You may experience unexpected results if you have third-party system software modiýcations installed, or if you've modiýed the operating system through other means. (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)" Installation of the update will result in an infinite restart loop for those using atom processors.
Microsoft

Submission + - MS pulls Windows 7 tool after GPL violation claims 1

Submitted by Sam
Sam writes: Ars Technica reports: Microsoft has pulled the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool from the Microsoft Store website after a report indicating that the tool incorporated open-source code in a way that violated the GNU's General Public License (GPL). Whether the software giant is actually violating the GPL, a widely used (including by the Linux kernel) free software license, is not confirmed. "We are currently taking down the Windows USB/DVD Tool (WUDT) from the Microsoft Store site until our review of the tool is complete," a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars. "We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience." The fact the company pulled the tool doesn't bode well, so we'll have to watch closely to see what the company puts back on its servers.

Submission + - Bank offers 79.9% APR credit card (nbcsandiego.com)

Submitted by Whisperwolf
Whisperwolf writes: First Premier bank is offering a pre-approved Mastercard to people with low credit ratings, at a whopping 79.9% APR. This would require anyone borrowing $1000 to make a minimum payment of around $68 for almost seven years, netting the bank $3851.36 in pure interest. Top it off with a $75 per year annual charge for the icing on the cake. And the real outrage? It's perfectly legal.
Books

Submission + - How Ray Bradbury overcame fear of flying (keepingthedoor.com)

Submitted by daria42
daria42 writes: Sci-fi and fantasy publisher Tor Books has published on YouTube a series of excerpts from a recent video with acclaimed American sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, in which he discusses his books and various aspects of his personal life. For example, he describes meeting a carnival performer named "Mr Electrico" who was the spur for Bradbury to begin writing in the first place. The author also talks about overcoming his fear of flying; he first flew on Delta Airlines only after drinking three double martinis first.
Microsoft

Submission + - Firefox Automatically Disables Microsoft Addon (pcworld.com) 1

Submitted by Sasayaki
Sasayaki writes: After it was revealed that the .net update to Firefox pushed through Windows Update left the browser vulnerable, Windows users today discovered that their browser had automatically disabled and blocked that addon (you could 'opt-in' again if you wanted). An interesting move- will Microsoft take it laying down?

Submission + - The Economics of Federal Cloud Computing Analyzed (ulitzer.com)

Submitted by jg21
jg21 writes: With $20BN about to be spent by the Federal Government on IT infrastructure investments, this highly analytical article by two Booz Allen Hamilton associates makes it clear that Cloud computing has now received full executive backing and offers clear opportunities for agencies to significantly reduce their growing data center and IT hardware expenditures. President Obama's America is going distinctly cloudy! [From the article: "A few agencies are already moving quickly to explore cloud computing solutions and are even redirecting existing funds to begin implementations ... Agencies should identify the aspects of their current IT workload that can be transitioned to the cloud in the near term to yield "early wins" to help build momentum and support for the migration to cloud computing."]
Star Wars Prequels

Submission + - Boy defends mother with Jedi weapon

Submitted by
terrymr
terrymr writes: "An 11-year-old boy has used a toy lightsabre to chase off a man who abused his mother in an English village.

The man, believed to be in his 30s, verbally abused and punched the boy's mother, provoking the Star Wars-style attack, British newspaper The Sun reported."

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