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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 159 declined, 21 accepted (180 total, 11.67% accepted)

Open Source

Submission + - LibreOffice Is One (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by superapecommando
superapecommando writes: Simon Phipps, former head of open source at Sun and LibreOffice backer looks at a tempestuous year for the OpenOffice fork.

"Once framed as an impetuous fork, LibreOffice has become the standard-bearer for the former OpenOffice community," he says. "It's far from perfect, of course. New open source projects never are and volunteer projects lack the corporate resources to make it look otherwise. But I have no doubt that it's working."
Piracy

Submission + - BSA inflate their piracy losses (computerworlduk.com) 1

Submitted by superapecommando
superapecommando writes: Glyn Moody reckons:

The IDC numbers turn out to be reasonable enough, the conclusions drawn from them are not. Reducing software piracy will not magically conjure up those hundreds of billions of dollars of economic growth that the BSA invokes, or create huge numbers of new jobs: it will simply move the money around — in fact, it will send more of it outside local economies to the US, and reduce the local employment. And it certainly won't do anything to ameliorate the quotidian problems of poorly-written software...


Programming

Submission + - Microsoft Silverlight 4 vs Adobe Flash 10.1 (techworld.com)

Submitted by superapecommando
superapecommando writes: HTML5, with its promises of plugin free browsing, a 3D graphics and animation API, built-in video and audio tags, an offline data store, and Web Workers to manage long-running background processes, would seem to spell the end of proprietary RIA (rich Internet application) platforms. But the reports of the death of Flash and Silverlight, as the saying goes, have been greatly exaggerated.

The richest RIA platforms today (and for the foreseeable future) come from clashing titans Adobe and Microsoft, whose Flash and Silverlight platforms both combine excellent tools for developers and designers, broad client support, strong support for server-side technologies, digital rights management capabilities, and the ability to satisfy use cases as varied as enterprise dashboards, live video streaming, and online games. And each has spawned new updates, to Flash 10.1/AIR 2 and Silverlight 4 respectively, which put them on a near-level playing field. Which one should you choose?
Businesses

Submission + - Linux Foundation Makes Open Source Boring (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by superapecommando
superapecommando writes: According to Glyn Moody:

In the early days of free software, the struggle was just to get companies to try this new and rather unconventional approach, without worrying too much about how that happened. That typically meant programs entering by the back door, surreptitiously installed by in-house engineers who understood the virtues of the stuff — and that it was easier to ask for forgiveness after the event than for permission before.

[The Linux Foundation tries] to take all the fun out of free software. They are about removing the quirkiness and the riskiness that has characterised free software in business for the last decade and a half, and seek to replace it with nice, safe systems that senior management will instantly fall in love with. In a word, they seek to make open source boring for the enterprise. That's not only good news for companies, it's a really important step for the Linux Foundation.


Google

Submission + - Google updates Chrome Frame, makes IE better (techworld.com) 1

Submitted by superapecommando
superapecommando writes:

Google updated Chrome Frame, a plug-in that embeds the company's Chrome browser engine into rival Microsoft's Internet Explorer, to a beta version.
As it did last year, Google cast Chrome Frame today as a way for IE users to instantly boost the notoriously slow JavaScript speed of their browser and let them access sites and Web applications that rely on standards that IE doesn't support, primarily HTML5.

Okay, for those of you still tied to IE (for whatever reason), there is no reason for you not to be using this excellent piece of software.

Idle

Submission + - Scientist infects self with computer virus (techworld.com) 1

Submitted by superapecommando
superapecommando writes:

A British scientist claims to have become the first human to be infected by a computer virus, in an experiment he says has important implications for the future of implantable technology. Dr Mark Gasson from the University of Reading infected a computer chip which was then implanted in his hand with the virus and then transmitted it to a PC to prove that malware can move between human and computer.

Lunatic or genius?

Privacy

Submission + - Facebook giving user private data to advertisers (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by superapecommando
superapecommando writes:

Lately, social networking sites have been bending over backwards to assure their users that user privacy is of utmost importance, but it may have all been in vain, as the Wall Street Journal has discovered that several social networking sites are sharing, with advertisers, information that can be used to identify individuals.
A report in the Wall Street Journal indicates that a number of social networking sites (including Facebook, MySpace, and Digg) may be sharing users' personal information with advertisers. Since the Journal started looking into this possible breach of privacy, both Facebook and MySpace have moved to make changes.

Yet another reason (if more were needed) to GTFO Facebook.

Piracy

Submission + - EU Piracy estimates: Just how inaccurate? (computerworlduk.com) 2

Submitted by superapecommando
superapecommando writes: Last week I wrote about a report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) that examined the reliability of recorded music industry research papers seeking to estimate the loss from “piracy” in the digital field, and found all of them seriously wanting.
As far as I know, no similar analysis has been carried out for European reports. So I thought it might be interesting to look at one particular European report on the subject — not least because I've heard that its findings influenced some of the MPs voting on the Digital Economy Act.
Government

Submission + - Stallman on the UK Digital Economy Bill (guardian.co.uk)

Submitted by superapecommando
superapecommando writes: When I read about Gordon Brown's plan to give the UK more broadband, I couldn't restrain my laughter. Isn't this the same clown now busy circumventing democracy to take away broadband from Britons who already have it? And what good would broadband do them if they're punished for using it (or even being suspected of using it)? Laying cables would be a waste of resources if people are not allowed to use them.
Brown did suggest another possible use for broadband. He said that it would enable MPs to better communicate with their constituents and keep track of what they want.
There is a real need to improve such communication in Britain today.
Patents

Submission + - Beware the King of the Patent Trolls (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by superapecommando
superapecommando writes: If you haven't heard of Intellectual Ventures, you will do. Set up by ex-Microsoftie Nathan Myhrvold, with investments from Microsoft among others, it is basically a patenting machine – filing and buying them in huge quantities. Note that it doesn't actually *use* these patents – except to threaten people with. In other words, Intellectual Ventures is a patent troll – or, rather the King of the Patent Trolls.
So I was interested to come across this extremely positive blog post on the company. That it is so positive is hardly surprising, since the blog is called “Tangible IP”, and subtitled “ipVA’s blog on adding value through intellectual property”. Nonetheless, it provides valuable insights into the mindset of fans of intellectual monopolies. Here's what it says about Intellectual Ventures:
They are an invention house, and have adopted and reinvented leading edge patent strategies to create a portfolio of their own IP which, in its own, would be of high high worth.
They don't *invent* anything in the proper, deep sense of the word: they merely file and buy patents – with no intent of ever making stuff or solving real-life problems.

Submission + - UK Internet filtering bill watered down (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by superapecommando
superapecommando writes: Lib Dem peers will change their amendment to the Digital Economy Bill, according to a report on the Guardian website. The Bill passed its second reading in the House of Lords last week.
Under the Liberal Lords' previous amendments, a legal process would be set up to allow copyright holders to demand that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) block access to sites which illegally share their content.
Criticism of the proposed system was not slow in coming. Some of the world's largest technology companies, including luminaries eBay, Google and Yahoo, signed an open letter against the changes to the Bill, which they said "threaten freedom of speech and the open internet". Computerworld UK blogger Glyn Moody summed up opposition to the Bill, stating that in its current form, it is "utterly one-sided, where the only winners are a music recording industry too lazy to change, and the losers are everyone else".
Government

Submission + - Iran accuses US of cyber warfare (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by superapecommando
superapecommando writes: Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps hacked into 29 websites affiliated with US espionage networks, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported on Sunday.
"The hacked websites acted against Iran's national security under the cover of human rights activities," Fars reported. It did not disclose details of the attacks.
The Internet has been used by Iranian opposition groups who contested the results of last year's elections there to organise demonstrations and share information about protests and arrests. The Revolutionary Guards is a military group that was founded after Iran's 1979 revolution. The group includes conventional army, navy, air force, and intelligence units, as well as the Basij paramilitary force and various business units.
Read more
Piracy

Submission + - Pirate Bay legal action dropped in Norway (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by superapecommando
superapecommando writes: Copyright holders have given up legal efforts to force Norwegian ISP Telenor to block filesharing site The Pirate Bay, one of the parties to the case said.
The copyright holders, led by Norway's performing rights society TONO and by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry Norway (IFPI Norge) Norway have lost two rounds in the Norwegian court system, and have now decided against appealing the case to Norway's supreme court, the organisations said.
Read more
Government

Submission + - James Bond loses his laptop (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by superapecommando
superapecommando writes: GCHQ lost 35 laptops in one year, potentially containing highly sensitive data.
The UK’s electronic spy centre was today lambasted by MPs for having a “cavalier” attitude to data security. The centre is responsible for tracking the electronic communications of terrorists.
In a new report, the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee expressed concern that GCHQ appeared to be entirely unaware whether or not the computers, lost in 2008, contained top secret information on people posing an imminent security threat to the country.

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