Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs 2009: The Finalists. Drooling For Dollars - Entrepreneurs worship two gods - Dollars. Swedes start buying music; are anti-P2P laws working? Is Sweden, the only country to have sent a member of the Pirate Party to the European Parliament, finally giving up its swashbuckling ways? When Sweden's IPRED anti-piracy law went into effect earlier this year, Internet traffic across the country plummeted overnight—a sign that P2P users, fearing exposure at last, were abandoning their existing copyright infringement tools. The Pirate Bay defendants were found guilty by a Swedish court earlier this year, and the site's ISP are now under assault by the music and movie industries. The music business insists that the measure are working. Music's major labels say that sales of digital downloads are up 18 percent in the first nine months of 2009 in Sweden.
Ludvig Werner, head of the trade group IFPI Sweden, told the UK's Guardian newspaper that it didn't matter if people still wanted to pirate; the point was, they were doing less of it. "It's like speeding, put up cameras and people will start to ease off the gas pedal. Dueling explanations. Giving up the GIMP is a sign of Ubuntu's mainstream maturity. Canonical hosted its biannual Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) last week in Dallas, Texas. I was one of many open source software developers who attended the event and participated in the collaborative process of planning Ubuntu 10.04, the next version of the popular Linux distribution. An important part of the 10.04 roadmap that emerged during UDS is a tentative plan to remove the GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Tool, from the default Ubuntu installation. Although this decision is viewed by some as controversial, the reasoning behind it is valid.
The removal of a niche professional graphics editing tool reflects Ubuntu's growing maturity as a mainstream platform for regular users. How UDS works Ubuntu adheres to a six-month development cycle that follows the GNOME release schedule. At the start of each cycle, Canonical hosts a developer summit that brings together its own team, a multitude of community contributors, and upstream developers from prominent open-source software projects.
Parse.ly: better feeds with less garnish | The Web Life | ZDNet. I haven't figured out a way to manage Google Reader. I tried using Fever, but it doesn't find news that matters to me... and it cost $30. Techmeme is my home page, but I think it needs an upgrade. I would like a feed reader that saves favorite feeds for me, and finds other content that is similar and interesting. A new product called Parse.ly caught my eye that makes content discovery a painless process. You can add interests and categorize them by how much they matter to you. The interface looks like GMail to me, and it's easy to browse the headlines and blurbs. Some things still need some tweaking, like the ability to rate content and tweak the algorithm, but I'll stick with this product for a while. If you are interested in trying this new product, use the invite code zdnet when you sign up.
Nuke labs show the future of hybrid computing. Security intelligence for a faster world SC09 The Hybrid Multicore Consortium is on a mission that perhaps all of computing - on the desktop and in the data center - will one day embark on: making hybrid computing architectures as easy to program and use as monolithic platforms have been. There is a growing consensus - but by no means a complete one - that the future of energy-efficient and yet powerful systems will be based on the coupling of general purpose, multicore CPUs with various kinds of co-processors that also have hundreds of cores to do specific kinds of accelerations needed by particular applications. The trouble with these hybrid computing architectures, which can bring a lot of flops to bear, is that even the smartest people in the world complain about how hard it is to program them.
Andy White, who heads up Los Alamos and who babysits Roadrunner, nodded his head and smiled wryly at that sentiment. Security intelligence for a faster world. 8 Million Reasons for Real Surveillance Oversig. Disclaimer: The information presented here has been gathered and analyzed in my capacity as a graduate student at Indiana University. This data was gathered and analyzed on my own time, without using federal government resources. This data, and the analysis I draw from it will be a major component of my PhD dissertation, and as such, I am releasing it in order to receive constructive criticism on my theories from other experts in the field.
The opinions I express in my analysis are my own, and do not reflect the views of the Federal Trade Commission, any individual Commissioner, or any other individual or organization with which I am affiliated. UPDATE 12/3/2009 @ 12:20PM: I received a phone call from an executive at TeleStrategies, the firm who organized the ISS World conference. He claimed that my recordings violated copyright law, and asked that I remove the mp3 recordings of the two panel sessions, as well as the YouTube/Vimeo/Ikbis versions I had embedded onto this blog. Yahoo! ' Video: WebGL might eventually bring awesome 3D to web apps. As mobile platform makers grant more and more system functionality to their browsers, the once distinct lines between native applications and web applications are beginning to blur. Over the past few months, HTML5 and other advances in web technology have allowed developers on various platforms to access to GPS coordinates, accelerometer data, and more.
Plenty of limitations still exist (it’s still mostly impossible to access the microphone/camera on most smartphones from the browser, for example), but one big hurdle might be on the way out: hardware-based acceleration, otherwise known as the goods required for graphic-heavy gaming. The key here is “WebGL”, a Mozilla project which is aiming to bring the popular OpenGL 3d library to the browser via Javascript. The advantage of this approach is compatibility; as long as your hardware supports OpenGL ES 2.0 and your browser supports Javascript, it should work with minimal tweakage. Check out the demo video, as posted by Vladimir Vukićević : 10 Web trends to watch in 2010. Mashable's Pete Cashmore says real-time communication, Internet TV and social gaming will be big in 2010. Mashable's Pete Cashmore lists his 10 Web trends that we'll be talking about next year Sparked by Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed, the real-time communications trend will grow The cloud-computing movement will see a major leap forward in the first half of 2010 2010 will be the breakthrough year of the much-anticipated mobile payments market Editor's note: Pete Cashmore is founder and CEO of Mashable, a popular blog about social media.
He is writing a weekly column about social networking and tech for CNN.com. (CNN) -- As 2009 draws to a close, the Web's attention turns to the year ahead. While Web innovation is unpredictable, some clear trends are becoming apparent. Real-time ramps up Sparked by Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed, the real-time trend has been to the latter part of 2009 what "Web 2.0" was to 2007. Location, location, location Augmented reality Content 'curation' Facebook friend turns into Big Brother. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student Adam Bauer has nearly 400 friends on Facebook.
He got an offer for a new one about a month ago. “She was a good-looking girl. I usually don’t accept friends I don’t know, but I randomly accepted this one for some reason,” the 19-year-old said. He thinks that led to his invitation to come down to the La Crosse police station, where an officer laid out photos from Facebook of Bauer holding a beer — and then ticketed him for underage drinking. The police report said Bauer admitted drinking, which he denies. But he did plead no contest in municipal court Wednesday and will pay a $227 fine. He was among at least eight people who said Wednesday they had been cited for underage drinking based on photos on social networking sites.
“I just can’t believe it. Social networking sites are among many new tools law enforcement has adopted to find underage drinkers, said La Crosse police officer Al Iverson, who works in alcohol compliance and education. happen. Arrest of Queens Man Puts Focus on Texting to Rally Protesters - Watchdog Group EFF Sues Government Regarding Social Media Survei. Consumer watchdog group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has initiated a lawsuit against multiple U.S. government agencies for failing to disclose their policies regarding the use of social media for surveillance.
According to the filing, the government has been making use of social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter to aid in various investigations where the alleged crimes range from the relatively minor infringement of underage drinking, to more serious endeavors, such as the coordination of protesters during the G-20 summit. However, when requests were made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for details about governmental policies, several agencies failed to respond with information regarding what data is collected, under what circumstances and who has access to it.
About the Suit The EFF is working with the Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law on this lawsuit. Barnes & Noble Nook E-Book reader reviews. Editors' note (May 24, 2011): Barnes & Noble has announced that the second-generation e-ink Nook will be available as of June 10, 2011. It features a touch-screen, and retails for $139. The first-generation model reviewed here will be discontinued immediately.
Remaining inventory will be sold off at closeout prices of $119 (Wi-Fi-only) and $169 (3G+Wi-Fi). The Nook Color remains in the line at a price of $249. Editors' note: This review has been updated extensively to account for changes in the Nook's features and performance resulting from firmware upgrades on April 23, 2010 , and November 22, 2010 , as well as the availability of the third-generation Kindle and the Nook Color. The Barnes & Noble Nook, the first Android-powered e-book reader, has had an interesting, if somewhat tumultuous, history.
Unfortunately, like a lot of first-generation devices, the Nook had its share of technical and usability issues. Does the updated Nook beat the latest Kindle? Meet OpenVPN. If your company has people on the road, such as sales or technical people, a VPN is a good method for letting them access data on the company network. Many different VPN solutions can be bought, but many are free. Here, I discuss only solutions you can set up without buying a commercial VPN product. The main VPN solution used for more complex tasks is IPsec; some people use PPTP. Although PPTP is usable, security flaws have occurred in its past, and it simply does not match up to IPsec. IPsec in tunnel mode would be a much better solution, were it not for the crippled Windows-client implementation: Windows XP/2000 clients can't use IPsec in tunnel mode without using L2TP. A disadvantage of plain IPsec is its notorious complexity: many, many things can and do go wrong. Every VPN approach has its list of pros and cons.
The list of cons includes: The setup uses TUN/TAP devices. Considering these arguments, OpenVPN should be a serious option if you are setting up a VPN. The Security Setup. Barnes & Noble Nook E-Book reader reviews. Editors' note (May 24, 2011): Barnes & Noble has announced that the second-generation e-ink Nook will be available as of June 10, 2011. It features a touch-screen, and retails for $139.
The first-generation model reviewed here will be discontinued immediately. Remaining inventory will be sold off at closeout prices of $119 (Wi-Fi-only) and $169 (3G+Wi-Fi). The Nook Color remains in the line at a price of $249. Editors' note: This review has been updated extensively to account for changes in the Nook's features and performance resulting from firmware upgrades on April 23, 2010 , and November 22, 2010 , as well as the availability of the third-generation Kindle and the Nook Color. Note that user reviews prior to April 23 and November 22 reflect the earlier respective versions of the firmware.
The Barnes & Noble Nook, the first Android-powered e-book reader, has had an interesting, if somewhat tumultuous, history. Does the updated Nook beat the latest Kindle? Droid: Creepy invasion of privacy has never been so enjoyable | VPN [LINUX/*BSD] <<->> Windows NT/2K/XP. VPN [LINUX/*BSD] <-> Windows NT/2K/XP HOWTO Celem niniejszego HOWTO jest podanie działającego przykładu VPNa między bramą postawioną na linuxie (wzgl. BSD), a klientem Windowsowym. Problem do rozwiązania: coraz większa liczba 'zdalnych pracowników' musi mieć dostęp z zewnątrz do coraz większej ilości danych firmowych - znajdujących się na lokalnych serwerach w firmie. Położenie jak i adres IP pracowników jest nieznany, często łączą się zza jakiejś maskarady w sieci osiedlowej czy z innych podejrzanych miejsc. Dobrym rozwiązaniem powyższego problemu jest zestawienie połączenia VPN między klientem, a routerem firmowym (bramką VPN).
Tyle teorii, w praktyce dzięki enkapsulacji można przez internet przesłać protokoły nierutowalne (np. OpenVPN - openvpn.sourceforge.net Zdecydowałem się na wybór pakietu OpenVPN, gdyż jego instalacja nie jest trudna, a możliwości całkiem dobre. Instalacja - Linux/BSD: 1) sciągnij najnowsze źródła stabilnej wersji. Konfiguracja: Rozwiązanie oparte o certyfikaty linki. Mozilla to open - gasp! - Firefox add-on store. High performance access to file storage Add-on-Con Mozilla has said it will "probably" open a marketplace for Firefox add-ons sometime next year.
Add-ons product manager Justin Scott (reluctantly) announced the news this morning at an add-on-happy conference in Mozilla's home town of Mountain View, California. "We'll probably be doing a marketplace pilot in 2010," he said. Scott did not provide details. Clearly, an add-on marketplace is a touchy subject for Mozilla, an open source outfit viewed as one of the leading champions of free software.
"I really wish we had more consumer feedback on these sorts of things," he said. "Occasionally, we do see people commenting on add-ons say 'I think software should be free.'" Yes, Mozilla already offers a central download page for Firefox add-ons - addon.mozilla.org, affectionately known as AMO - but this is not a place where developers can actually sell their browserware. Opera on Google Chrome OS: what me worry? High performance access to file storage Add-on-Con Is Google's impending browser-based operating system a concern for other browser makers? Well, it's not a worry for Opera, according to its chief standards officer.
"I don't think it's a particularly big deal," Charles McCathieNevile told The Reg this afternoon at the browser-obsessed Add-on-Con in Mountain View, California. "The reality is that there are still lots of different devices with lots of operating systems. " With Chrome OS - due in netbooks at the end of next year - Google has shunned local applications and local data. Yes, McCathieNevile says, there would be reason for concern if Google managed to build a monopoly with its browser-based OS.
"It comes down to how open they keep it...If it's open enough and it gives you the ability to create low-level access, then you can just go and put a new browser in there," he explains. Of course, Opera hasn't actually put its browser onto the iPhone. McCathieNevile understands the stance. Hackers root Motorola Droid. Michael VanDaniker | Data Visualization on the Flash Platform. VMware: virtualized SMBs do it better. SMB-Survey.pdf (Obiekt application/pdf)