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Firefox

Submission + - First Look: Firefox 4 Beta 1 Shines on HTML5 (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Peter Wayner takes a first look at Firefox 4 Beta 1 and sees several noteworthy HTML5 integrations that bring Firefox 4 'that much closer to taking over everything on the desktop.' Beyond the Chrome-like UI, Firefox 4 adds several new features that 'open up new opportunities for AJAX and JavaScript programmers to add more razzle-dazzle and catch up with Adobe Flash, Adobe AIR, Microsoft Silverlight, and other plug-ins,' Wayner writes. 'Firefox 4 also adds an implementation of the Websockets API, a tool for enabling the browser and the server to pass data back and forth as needed, making it unnecessary for the browser to keep asking the server if there's anything new to report.'"

Comment Re:Boy oh boy! (Score 1) 414

by compm375 (#27795343) Attached to: Linux Reaches 1% Usage Share
While I'm certainly skeptical of the data on that site and in fact many statistics websites, but I'd imagine they are getting their statistics by looking at web traffic, rather than actually doing real research. Note they mention browsing. Why do you think that is?
Privacy

Submission + - EFF Releases Software to Spot Net NonNeutrality (eff.org)

Submitted by DanielBoz
DanielBoz writes: In the wake of the detection and reporting of Comcast Corporation's controversial interference with Internet traffic, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published a comprehensive account of Comcast's packet-forging activities and has released software and documentation instructing Internet users on how to test for packet forgery or other forms of interference by their own ISPs.
Music

Submission + - EMI may cut funding to IFPI, RIAA (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by Teen Bainwolf
Teen Bainwolf writes: Big Four record label EMI is reportedly considering a big cut in its funding for the IFPI and RIAA. Each of the labels reportedly contributed over $130 million per year to fund industry trade groups, and EMI apparently believes that money could be better spent elsewhere. 'One of the chief activities of the RIAA is coordinating the Big Four labels' legal campaign, and those thousands of lawsuits have done nothing but generate ill will from record fans, while costing the labels millions of dollars and doing little (if anything) to actually reduce the amount of file-sharing going on. In fact, the RIAA freely admits that the legal campaign is a real money pit, and EMI's new ownership may be very leery of continuing to pour money down that particular rat hole.
Software

Submission + - OpenDocument Foundation closes down

Submitted by
Munchkinguy
Munchkinguy writes: "First, they dropped support for their namesake OpenDocument Format and switching to W3C "Compund Document Format". Then, W3C's Chris Lilley says that CDF is "was not created to be, and isn't suitable for use as, an office format". Now, the Foundation has mysteriously shut down, leaving the following message:

The OpenDocument Foundation, Inc. is closed. We sincerely wish our friends and associates in the OpenDocument Community all the best and much success going forward. Good-bye and good luck.
"

Comment Re:Why.. (Score 5, Informative) 335

by compm375 (#20362607) Attached to: Skype Linux Reads Password and Firefox Profile
Well, I just searched the source of Pidgin (because it is open source) and found it does indeed access /etc/passwd through getpwuid(getuid()) for use in Bonjour, Silc, and Zephyr protocols. There is no direct access to /etc/passwd and no use of getpwuid without using the current users uid through getuid. Skype may be doing the same thing, but there is really no way to know, is there?
Software

Submission + - Does Comcast hate Firefox? (blorge.com)

Submitted by
destinyland
destinyland writes: "Comcast is the largest ISP in America. And they're requiring Internet Explorer for installations — even if you're using a Mac. The Comcast homepage even species that the page is optimized for IE 5.5 (which was released in 2000), and "is not optimized for Firefox browsers and Macs." With 13 million subscribers, you'd think they could spring for a web developer who could handle multiple browsers. (From the last line of the article: "I'm afraid to ask how Comcast handles Linux...""
Privacy

Submission + - States rebel against Real ID Act (lawbean.com)

Submitted by
Spamicles
Spamicles writes: "Four states have passed laws that reject federal rules regarding a national identification system. This casts serious doubt on the future of the 2005 Real ID Act that goes into effect in December 2009. New Hampshire and Oklahoma joined Montana and Washington state in the passage of statutes that refute guidelines set forth in the Act. However, these actions could eventually lead to drivers licenses issued in these states to not be accepted as official identification when boarding airplanes or accessing federal buildings. In addition to these four states, members of the Idaho legislature intentionally left out money in the budget to comply with the Act."

Feed Viacom Promises To Be More Mindful Of Fair Use On YouTube (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
When Viacom took down 100,000 videos from YouTube claiming they were infringing, one problem was that there were a number of false positives where they forced videos offline that weren't infringing at all. In one case, the EFF and others sued over the removal of a parody of the Colbert report, and Viacom bizarrely claimed that it hadn't sent a takedown about it despite a ton of evidence that it had. Eventually Viacom admitted that it had, in fact, accidentally sent the takedown. In response, the company has convinced the EFF to drop the lawsuit after promising to manually review all videos before sending takedown notices, training those who review the videos to understand fair use and publicly stating that it has no problem with videos that are "creative, newsworthy or transformative" and are "a limited excerpt for non commercial purposes." In other words, it's basically everything the EFF wanted, and now we'll see if Viacom lives up to the promise.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft responds to EU with another question

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft has responded to the latest round of EU requests by asking how much the EU thinks they should charge for Windows Server Protocols. The EU has stated the Microsoft should charge based on "innovation, not patentability" and that they have "examined 160 Microsoft claims to patented technologies" concluding "only four may only deserve to claim 'a limited degree of innovation.'" The EU is also starting to discuss structural remedies as opposed to the behavioral remedies they are currently enforcing. At what point has/will the EU overstepped its bounds?
The Courts

Submission + - Principal cancels classes, sues over MySpace prank

Submitted by Earnest
Earnest writes: A prank MySpace page has led to to a barrage of lawsuits and the misuse of school resources as the principal targeted by the pranksters attempted to find the perpetrators. In 2005, students at Hickory High School in Pennsylvania created a fake MySpace profile of principal Eric Trosch. As a result, the school's IT staff spent about 25 percent of his work time dealing with the issue and finding the culprits. That's not all. 'Trosch kept at it, even taking measures that led to the "cancellation of computer programming classes as well as usage of computers for research for class projects." Now the basic educational mission of the school was being compromised in order to keep students from visiting these profiles during school hours (students were still free to look at the profiles from home, of course).'

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