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Android

Submission + - Google app verification service detects only 15% of infected apps (ncsu.edu)

Submitted by ShipLives
ShipLives writes: Researchers have tested Google's app verification service (included in Android 4.2 last month), and found that it performed very poorly at identifying malware in apps. Specifically, the app verification service identified only ~15% of known malware in testing — whereas existing third-party security apps identified between 51% and 100% of known malware in testing.
Microsoft

Submission + - Outrage at Microsoft offshoring tax in the UK (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by Master Of Ninja
Master Of Ninja writes: After the ongoing row about companies not paying a fair share of tax in the United Kingdom, and with companies such as Starbucks, Amazon and Google being in the headlines, focus has now turned to Microsoft. Whilst the tax arrangements are strictly legal, there has been outrage on how companies are avoiding paying their fair share of tax generated in the country.

Submission + - McAffee is doing a live broadcast tonight on ustream at 8:00PM EST (whoismcafee.com)

Submitted by
paysonwelch
paysonwelch writes: "GUATEMALA CITY, December 9, 2012 — John McAfee, famed antivirus software pioneer and human rights advocate, today announced that he will host a news conference to ask the world for its protection against the Government of Belize. On his official blog, whoismcafee.com, Mr. McAfee has exposed the widespread corruption that is currently taking over the small country. Because of this, Mr. McAfee feels that he will be in grave danger if he were to be returned toBelize.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/urecommendmedia"

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."]
Programming

Submission + - The Future of AJAX and the Rich Web Dscusssed (ajaxworldmagazine.com)

Submitted by jg21
jg21 writes: This AJAXWorld Magazine article indicates how far AJAX has come since devs complained here that it sucked all the time. Eight experts were asked what questions we should now all be asking, with 2008 just around the corner, about where AJAX is headed next. The suggested questions are refreshingly hard-headed, including: "How are we to fix the web?" (Douglas Crockford, JSON inventor), "When will AJAX development finally be easy?" (Google's Christian Schalk), and "Do we really need JavaScript 2.0? Won't it be somewhat irrelevant by the time it becomes commonplace and thus usable?" (Josh Gertzen, lead developer of the ThinWire AJAX Framework). One of the most interesting questions came from Kevin Hakman, co-founder of TIBCO's General Interface: "On what timeline will AJAX skills become commoditized like HTML skills became?" With a question like that, one is reminded that AJAX has come a very long way in a very short time.
The Internet

Submission + - Is It Time for a "Kinder, Gentler HTML"? (web2journal.com) 2

Submitted by jg21
jg21 writes: Web 2.0 Journal brings to our attention Yahoo! Architect and JSON inventor Douglas Crockford's latest ideas to fix HTML. Not a fan of HTML 5, which is still just an Editor's Draft and not endorsed by W3C yet, Crock puts forward ten ideas that in his view would provide extensibility without complexity, adding that the simplification of HTML he is proposing would reduce the cost of training of web developers and incorporates the best practices of AJAX development. [From the article: "The problems with HTML will not be solved by making it bigger and more complicated. I think instead we should generalize what it does well, while excising features that are problematic. HTML can be made into a general application delivery format without disrupting its original role as a document format."]
Google

Submission + - Redmond's Heavy Guns Go After OpenSocial

Submitted by jg21
jg21 writes: It is probably coincidental, but two responses to OpenSocial from well-respected members of the Microsoft blogging community have each in their own way come out against Google's OpenSocial initiative, Dare Osabanjo because in his view OpenSocial while billed as a standardized widget platform for the Web, actually isn't. And Don Dodge because his claim is that fifty million Facebook developers "don't know what OpenSocial APIs are...and don't care."
Media

Submission + - The Psychology of Facebook Examined (socialcomputingmagazine.com)

Submitted by jg21
jg21 writes: In this analysis of the pyschology of Facebook, a British FB user makes some telling points about how simple the reasons behind its success are. Among them, fear of "online social failure" features prominently. [From the article: 'Facebook also digs away at the insecurities in people...your peers can see your profile on Facebook, and while they may have 50, 100, 200 friends they will mockingly see that you have a pathetically small number, confirming your worst fears about the low opinion they have probably held of you over all those years etc.']
The Internet

Submission + - 35 Different Ways of Looking at Social Networks (socialcomputingmagazine.com)

Submitted by jg21
jg21 writes: Social Computing Magazine has just published a list of thirty-five perspectives on online social networking reflecting how protean and difficult to pin down the phenomenon is. It was compiled by Malene Charlotte Larsen, a PhD student at Aalborg University in Denmark, who has been doing research on Danish youngsters and online social networking. She ends with an open request for further perspectives.

[From the article "I must say that I certainly do not agree with all of the mentioned perspectives, but some of them do represent the opinions (or prejudices) I hear when I am out giving lectures to adults."]
Businesses

13-Year-Old CEO Steals the Show At TiECON 259

Posted by kdawson
An anonymous reader tells us about a 13-year old Silicon Valley CEO with a plan to change the way kids learn chemistry. Yesterday he stole the show at TiECON 2007, the big entrepreneur conference held in Santa Clara, CA. VentureBeat has the story and a video interview. The company's VP of sales is the CEO's sister. She's 11. They're looking for $100K to ramp up production and distribution.
The Internet

Submission + - "Social" Computing: Badger's Paws Anyone?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: When Yahoo!'s Jeremy Zawodny recently asked What the heck is Web 2.0 anyway? he received a set of responses reminiscent of those garnered by The Reg back in 2005, which famously concluded, based on its readers' responses, that Web 2.0 was made up of 12% badger's paws, 6% JavaScript worms, and 26% nothing. Nonetheless, as Social Computing (SoC) widens and deepens its footprint, another Jeremy — Jeremy Geelan — has asked if we are witnessing the death of "Personal" Computing. SoC, Geelan notes, has already become an academic field of study. But isn't Social Computing too maybe just badger's paws?
The Internet

Submission + - "Tech Heroes" From Ada Lovelace to Jamie Z

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Web 2.0 Journal has launched a search for what it calls "the all-time heroes of i-Technology" (its own shorthand for 'Internet technologies'), reaching as far back as to The Countess of Lovelace, though whether or not Ada Lovelace is truly the first programmer is not discussed. As an exercise in reminding ourselves whose shoulders we are standing on when hurtlng towards the 21st-century, richer Web it's not a bad start. Naturally there are sins of omission, though. (No mention of Ward Cunningham, creator of the wiki, for example; nor of anyone involved with the technology behind Skype, KaZaa, and now Joost.)
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Apple Punished for Going After Bloggers

Submitted by
inetsee
inetsee writes: "Apple has been ordered to pay legal fees for two web sites that reported on an in-development Apple project code named 'Asteroid'. According to the article on WebProNews, Apple was ordered by a Santa Clara County court to pay almost $700,000 in legal reimbursement to AppleInsider and PowerPage after the court agreed with the Electronic Frontier Foundation legal team that the web sites 'qualified as legitimate online news sites' engaging in trade journalism. Apple had claimed that it had a right to protect its trade secrets, but the EFF successfully argued that 'Subpoenaing journalist sources is not an acceptable means of discovery.'"

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