Technology News Feeds

Memphis police trying to out anonymous badged blogger  

The Memphis Police Department isn't so crazy about the MPD Enforcer 2.0 blog, which has been notoriously critical of the department's activities. As part of a recently-filed lawsuit, the MPD has subpoenaed AOL to try and unveil who is responsible for the blog, a move that has rights activists concerned over the threat to free speech.

Read More...

Parents group: still too easy for kids to buy M-rated games  

The Parents Television Council did its own undercover work to see how many retailers would sell their underage shoppers M-rated games. The group's findings, unsurprisingly, do not echo the good news the FTC gave the industry in May.

Read More...

Math gender gap gone in grade school, persists in college  

Data from math assessments indicate that the math gender gap no longer exist in US grade schools, but it persists in college and beyond.

Read More...

DRM still sucks: Yahoo Music going dark, taking keys with it  

Yahoo announced last night that it will shutter Yahoo Music soon. If you bought DRMed files from the store, it's time to stock up on blank CDs and prepare yourself for lossy rerips if you want to move your music to a new PC come October.

Read More...

Shuttleworth: Microsoft Does Not Want War  At OSCON, Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical Ltd. said he doubts Microsoft would file a claim against Linux developers.
- PORTLAND, Ore. -- Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Canonical Ltd., which maintains the Ubuntu desktop Linux distribution said he doubts Microsoft would file suit against a free software developer unless the software giant wants quot;war. quot; At the end of a session at the O'Reilly Open Source C...

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery: How to Prepare Your Business  Companies frequently don't like to think about Business Continuity (BC), Disaster Recovery (DR), the expense of hot sites or even off-site storage. But, as Michael Croy explains, you have to ask yourself how much you're willing to lose. If you can't afford to lose it, then BC/DR is for you.
- In 2008, we have witnessed several significant disasters: The earthquake and subsequent flooding in the Sichuan Province of China, the unexpected and tragic cyclone in Myanmar, devastating tornados in Georgia and Colorado, fires up the coast of Southern California and, most recently, widespread floo...

Researcher Urges Prompt Patch to Fix DNS Flaw  Since attack code for the DNS protocol flaw discovered by security researcher Dan Kaminsky is now public, patching is even more important.
- With details of the Domain Name System (DNS) flaw discovered now public and attack code in the wild, security researcher Dan Kaminsky once again is urging IT administrators to patch promptly. The bug can be exploited to poison DNS caches and re-direct Internet traffic to malicious sites. Kaminsky...

Zimbra Yahoo Offline Mail Client Arrives  The Yahoo Zimbra Beta allows all 263 million Yahoo Mail customers to access mail and calendars offline. Zimbra Desktop Beta Version 3, available July 24, will let users run their Yahoo mail as desktop POP or IMAP mail client software.
- The Yahoo Zimbra Beta allows all 263 million Yahoo Mail customers to access mail and calendars offline. Zimbra Desktop Beta Version 3, available July 24, will let users run their Yahoo mail as desktop POP or IMAP mail client software. Previously this required a Yahoo Pro account for $19.99 per ...

dekePod Episode 002: Stealth 'Shop, The Virgin Histogram   Imagine yourself walking down a lovely San Francisco street, whistling a merry tune, only to be confronted by the sudden appearance of a menacing robot packing a shockingly massive and entirely unnecessary... ray gun, of sorts. What would you do? If you were Deke, you'd snap a picture and correct its colors. And not in any standard way, either, but in a way that permits you to apply radical color adjustments while leaving a virgin-like histogram in your wake.

Aperture Screencast 3: Working with the Basic Levels Adjustments   The Levels adjustment is a comfortable tool for many photographers. In part, because it allows you to individually adjust the shadows, midtones, and highlights with the assistance of a histogram. In this screencast, Derrick Story walks you through the basic levels adjustments in Aperture.

Digital Media Insider Podcast 26: One Glorious Note   In many ways, music technology has become a numbers game. Today's digital instruments are often sold on specs, not sound. In this episode, the Fat Man goes back to basics, gleefully playing everything from an ancient test-tone generator to a spicy Excaliburrito to demonstrate that one glorious note may be all you need.

Tim Grey Answers Your Digital Photography Questions   Tim Grey, author of the just released Take Your Best Shot: Tim Grey Tackles Your Digital Darkroom Questions, sits down with Derrick Story to answer submitted questions about photography during this video interview from Photoshop World Orlando. Tim addresses a number of topics including film vs digital, megapixels, sharpening, color management, and more.

Voodoo Envy 133  The Envy 133, Voodoo's answer to the Apple MacBook Air, will bring envy to many.

eMachines T5254  The eMachines T5254 rivals the company's flagship T5246 in performance and features and costs $30 less.

SafeCentral  SafeCentral's browser secures your online transactions and offers special verification for many thousands of sensitive Web sites.

MSI Wind  The MSI Wind may not be perfect, but it's the best deal in the UMPC market.

How To Deal With Internet Bullies?  creyes123 writes "I run a free website with an online model airplane design calculator. The number of registered users has quickly climbed and I've gotten many compliments. Out of nowhere, a fellow shows up and proceeds to bad mouth the calculator in a posting in one of my forums. After I politely point out that he's mistaken and should have looked at the documentation before posting, he changes the subject and bad mouths a different 'flaw.' The cycle repeats a few more times, with no apparent end in sight. I want to encourage folks to share their opinions, but constructive criticism was clearly not his goal. I feel that the whole episode was just a massive time waster for me. What did I do to deserve this? Could I have handled this better?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

UK Facebook User's Name Appropriation Draws Huge Libel Suit  Slatterz links to a story which shows that nowadays, it's sometimes possible to find out whether someone is a dog on the Internet, excerpting: "A freelance photographer is facing a £22,000 bill after setting up a fake Facebook page that libelled a former classmate. Grant Raphael, a freelance photographer, set up a Facebook page in the name of former school friend Mathew Firsht and posted false information about his sexual and political preferences. He also set up another page for Firsht's television company, the latter entitled 'Has Mathew Firsht lied to you?' ... 'The significance of this case is that it shows that what you post is not harmless, but has consequences,' media lawyer, Jo Sanders, of Harbottle & Lewis, told the BBC."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Robocars As the Best Way Geeks Can Save the Planet  Brad Templeton writes "I (whom you may know as EFF Chairman, founder of early dot-com Clari.Net and rec.humor.funny) have just released a new series of futurist essays on the amazing future of robot cars, coming to us thanks to the DARPA Grand Challenges. The computer driver is just the beginning — the essays detail how robocars can enable the cheap electric car, save millions of lives and trillions of dollars, and are the most compelling thing computer geeks can work on to save the planet. Because robocars can refuel, park and deliver themselves, and not simply be chauffeurs, they end up changing not just cars but cities, industries, energy, and — by removing dependence on foreign oil — even wars. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords." (More below.)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hasbro Sues Makers of Scrabble-Like Scrabulous  Dekortage writes "As today's lawsuit indicates, Hasbro has apparently had enough of Scrabulous, the online word game remarkably similar to Scrabble. Filed in New York, Hasbro's suit is against Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, brothers from Kolkata, India, and asks the court to remove the Scrabulous application from Facebook, disable the Scrabulous.com web site, and grant damages and attorneys fees to Hasbro. Why did Hasbro tale so long to 'protect' its intellectual property rights in court? They waited 'in deference to the fans' until EA had launched the official Scrabble Facebook app earlier this month. EA's version has netted fewer than ten thousand players, versus Scrabulous' estimated 2.3 million. This was the next logical step for Hasbro after filing DMCA takedown notices against Scrabulous in January."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

World's biggest ISPs drag feet on critical DNS patch  

BT, AT&T among those putting subscribers at risk

More than two weeks after security researchers warned of a critical defect in the net's address lookup system, some of the world's biggest internet service providers - including AT&T, BT, Time Warner and Bell Canada - have yet to install a patch inoculating their subscribers against attacks.…

American data pimper exposes ad equation  

26,000 tracked, 15 opt out

How much notice did American ISPs provide when testing NebuAd's Phorm-like behavioral ad targeter? Not as much as NebuAd CEO Bob Dykes would have you believe.…

Tory leader's stolen bicycle surfaces on eBay  

'It leans oddly to the right'

Hours after Tory leader David Cameron told the world that someone had nicked his bicycle, the much-discussed two-wheeler has turned up on eBay. Or so it seems.…

Poker-faced Ballmer explains Google beating plans  

Send in the marines

When you report annual revenue of $60bn you'd expect Wall St would give a little credit where credit's due. Not take your stock price outside and rough it up.…

Microsoft defends search investments to analysts (AP)  

AP - Microsoft's CEO defended the software maker's decision to invest heavily in its unprofitable online business, but shed minimal light Thursday on specific steps it will take to challenge Google in the wake of the failed bid to buy Yahoo.

Major shareholder advisory firm backs Yahoo board (AP)  

AP - An influential shareholder advisory firm endorsed the re-election of Yahoo Inc.'s entire board Thursday, reducing the chances that the Internet company's directors will be ousted for spurning Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion takeover bid during the spring.

Creators of Scrabble knockoff on Facebook sued (AP)  

AP - T-R-O-U-B-L-E could loom for a Scrabble knockoff that has become one of the most popular activities on Facebook.

Facebook to help some programmers, punish others (AP)  

AP - Facebook Inc. is introducing more tools to help the software applications fueling the online hangout's popularity and is promising to intensify its efforts to weed out programs that violate its rules for protecting users' privacy.