Comment I couldn't do my homework (Score 1) 177
My dog ate my computer
Submission + - Daily Tech hunts payola among tech review sites
cheesecake23 writes: How often have you read a hardware review and thought: "no way was that an honest opinion, the reviewer was bought"? Well, the Daily Tech has gone undercover to find out whether or not payola is accepted among the 35 largest online English-language hardware review sites. Questions asked and answered:
- How many sites would take money (or sell ads) in exchange for a product review? [Answer: 20 percent]
- How many sites would additionally consider selling an Editor's Choice award? [Answer: none]
- Were any world regions more "corrupt" than others? [Answer: no, 20-25% almost everywhere]
- Does it depend on the size or age of the site? [Answer: read TFA]
Journal Journal: Phantom Vaporware and Penny Stock Fraud
Cool story on Ars Technica about the unending saga of Phantom Entertainment. "When we looked into SEC documents like the company's annual report, we found a company that changes names and locations with amazing frequency; a company whose chairman has been indicted by the SEC for participating in a pump-and-dump 'fax blast' scheme; a company that ro
Submission + - Spyware maker sues anti-spyware maker
prostoalex writes: "An "online media company" Zango, which gained notoriety for redirecting adult affiliate traffic and the first ever MySpace worm, is now suing the anti-spyware vendor PC Tools, maker of an application called "Spyware Doctor", for removing Zango applications off the consumers' PCs."
Submission + - "Web site" term eludes judge
An anonymous reader writes: LONDON (Reuters) — A British judge admitted on Wednesday he was struggling to cope with basic terms like "Web site" in the trial of three men accused of inciting terrorism via the Internet.
Judge Peter Openshaw broke into the questioning of a witness about a Web forum used by alleged Islamist radicals.
"The trouble is I don't understand the language. I don't really understand what a Web site is," he told a London court during the trial of three men charged under anti-terrorism laws.
Prosecutor Mark Ellison briefly set aside his questioning to explain the terms "Web site" and "forum." An exchange followed in which the 59-year-old judge acknowledged: "I haven't quite grasped the concepts."
Bookmark Feature List for Upcoming Firefox 3.0 Browser (pcworld.com)
Submission + - Learn 10 good UNIX usage habits
An anonymous reader writes: Adopt 10 good habits that improve your UNIX command line efficiency — and break away from bad usage patterns in the process. This article takes you step-by-step through several good, but too often neglected, techniques for command-line operations. Learn about common errors and how to overcome them, so you can learn exactly why these UNIX habits are worth picking up.
Submission + - Microsoft publishes free XBox development tools
prostoalex writes: "Microsoft announced the release of free XNA Game Studio Express tool for developing C# games that run on both Windows and XBox. They're also selling XNA Creators Club subscriptions, which, similar to MSDN subscriptions, offer access to sample code and additional documentation. Also, Microsoft is explicitly aiming towards uniting the Windows and XBox development platforms: "You will have to compile the game once for each platform. In this release simply create a separate project for each platform and then compile them both. Our goal is to allow as much code as possible to be shared between those two projects, allowing you to use the same source files in both projects, but platform-specific code will need to be conditionally-compiled.""
Sony Adds PS3 Support to Linux Kernel 181
mu22le writes "A few Sony patches to the Linux kernel have just been merged in the mainline tree, to be included in the 2.6.20 release. The patches add 'core platform support for the PS3 game console and other devices using the PS3 hypervisor.'" From the Linux Devices article: "Linux gained generic support for the Cell processor, on which the PS3 is based, with the 2.6.13 release in June of 2005. The new Sony-contributed patches to the 2.6.20 kernel appear to add machine-specific support for technology such as the PS3's memory architecture, DMA (direct memory access) model, and SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) model. A Yellow Dog Linux (YDL) distribution has been available for the PS3 since October, thanks to a development deal between Sony and YDL publisher TerraSoft. However, YDL so far has not been bundled with early PS3 shipments, despite earlier indications from Sony Entertainment's CEO, Ken Kuturagi."
Submission + - Vista's "Next Gen" TCP/IP Stack and the En
boyko.at.netqos writes: "Microsoft's new Vista TCP/IP stack might be beneficial to businesses looking to increase use of their IT infrastructure... if they did it right. Ted Romer at Network Performance Daily writes: "Changes to the network are a certainty, as traffic patterns change. More aggressive utilization of the links means there will certainly be changes in the way traffic flows on the network; hopefully Microsoft has fully factored in delay, otherwise this could cause traffic congestion.""
Journal Journal: Xubuntu 6.06 on a Thinkpad 380XD
The electric acid grandma test: My mother has been wanting to get on the Internet and send emails for a while now. Since neither she nor I knew if she'd like having a computer, I wanted to get something cheap. And since she didn't have a lot of space to spread out, a laptop was preferable. Looking through the classifieds, I found someone selling an IBM Thinkpad 380XD computer for $100: PII 233 MHz, 95 MB RAM, CD-ROM and floppy drives, and a USB port. Not bad for a starter system where
Feed BitTorrent Acquires Torrent (wired.com)
Journal SPAM: BWAHAHAHA 4
What was the term I used? Oh yes, right-wing pussies
Granted, I'm not going to argue too hard that my comment was not entirely trollish, but for fucks's sake, can we take the ridiculous "the press made us lose in Vietnam and they're making us lose in Iraq" conspiracy theory outside and shoot it in the back of the head already?
Granted, I'm not going to argue too hard that my comment was not entirely trollish, but for fucks's sake, can we take the ridiculous "the press made us lose in Vietnam and they're making us lose in Iraq" conspiracy theory outside and shoot it in the back of the head already?
Submission + - BitTorrent, Inc. Acquires uTorrent
ColinPL writes: "BitTorrent, Inc. has taken the next step — the acquisition of uTorrent. In an joint announcement made today, the two firms have publicly solidified the merger.
"Together, we are pleased to announce that BitTorrent, Inc. and uTorrent AB have decided to join forces," a forum post on uTorrent states. "BitTorrent has acquired uTorrent as it recognized the merits of uTorrent's exceptionally well-written codebase and robust user community. Bringing together uTorrent's efficient implementation and compelling UI with BitTorrent's expertise in networking protocols will significantly benefit the community with what we envision will be the best BitTorrent client.""
"Together, we are pleased to announce that BitTorrent, Inc. and uTorrent AB have decided to join forces," a forum post on uTorrent states. "BitTorrent has acquired uTorrent as it recognized the merits of uTorrent's exceptionally well-written codebase and robust user community. Bringing together uTorrent's efficient implementation and compelling UI with BitTorrent's expertise in networking protocols will significantly benefit the community with what we envision will be the best BitTorrent client.""
Microsoft Sides With Nintendo Against Sony 495
rafemonkey writes "Looks like Microsoft loves the Wii. The Washington Post has an article in which VP Peter Moore says that since the PS3 is so expensive, gamers might as well get an Xbox 360 and a Wii for the cost of one Sony console." From the article: "Microsoft predicted on Tuesday it will have 10 million Xbox 360 consoles in the market before Sony launches the PS3. The high-end Xbox 360 sells for $399, but it does not include a built-in high-definition DVD video player that comes with Sony's PS3. Sony plans to sell a premium PS3 model for $599 when it debuts in North America on November 17, and Nintendo has not yet disclosed pricing for Wii." On that last note there is much speculation that Nintendo is aiming for a $249 price point. Sony's Kaz Hirai has in turn responded that the PlayStation 3 is priced for consumers, who are getting a lot for their money.
