Linux kernel chief exits SUSE, takes vendor-neutral oversight role
Greg Kroah-Hartman, maintainer of the Linux kernel's stable branch and the Linux driver project, is leaving his position with SUSE to join the
Linux Foundation in a full-time fellowship role. Kroah-Hartman will now have more time to oversee kernel development and work with the Linux community, while leaving aside the responsibility of working for a vendor. (The SUSE Linux project was owned by Novell, and now Attachmate.)
"There were no direct conflicts working for SUSE, as the people there understand how important the individual developer, and their voice, is in the Linux community," Kroah-Hartman told Ars this week in an e-mail interview. "But, working in a vendor-neutral environment like the Linux Foundation allows me to spend a larger amount of time interacting with other companies and vendors, as well as helping Linux out in environments that were not necessarily the focus of my previous employer."
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Megaupload's hosting company teams up with EFF to identify legal files
Carpathia Hosting, the Virginia company that owns more than 600 servers previously leased by Megaupload, today joined forces with the EFF to collect the stories of legitimate users who want access to their now-inaccessible files stored with the defunct file-locker.
The new site,
megaretrieval.com, hopes to hear from the "multitude of innocent users who stored legitimate, non-infringing files on the cloud-storage service were left with no means to access their data." EFF can't promise that the data will be retrieved, though, and Carpathia says it has no direct access to the content on the servers.
"Carpathia does not have access to any data for Megaupload customers," wrote Brian Winter of Carpathia. "We have no immediate plans to reprovision some or all of the Megaupload servers. This means that there is no imminent data loss for Megaupload customers. If this situation changes, we will post a notice at least 7 days in advance of reprovisioning any Megaupload servers at www.Carpathia.com and www.MegaRetrieval.com."
Megaupload
servers were searched and the company's employees arrested, mainly in New Zealand, on January 19. The FBI did not physically seize the servers, however; after executing its warrants and copying data, the Bureau released them for use again by Carpathia. But with Megaupload's assets also seized, the site can't currently pay to keep them running.
Julie Samuels of EFF says that her organization is "troubled that so many lawful users of Megaupload.com had their property taken from them without warning and that the government has taken no steps to help them. We think it's important that these users have their voices heard as this process moves forward."
Our own Peter Bright suspects that the percentage of legal content hosted on Megaupload
is minimal. At the moment, though, it's hard to know; we've already chronicled some of the
many legal uses to which the site was put.
A major part of the EFF/Carpathia initiative is simply finding out more about these uses and how widespread they were.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Parcel Gamer wants to share used game profits with publishers
At the heart of the great used game debate are legitimate fears—on both sides of the divide. Gamers are worried about their right to buy and sell games they legally bought without
technological hindrance or
lost content. Publishers are afraid new game sales are unsustainable when cheaper, functionally identical used versions are available mere days after release. Meanwhile, major retailer GameStop rakes in what's
estimated to be billions of dollars from the used game market.
Is there a better way? Mike Kennedy seems to think so. He's setting up a new used game trading site called Parcel Gamer that he thinks can satisfy both publishers and gamers, while also undercutting GameStop's high-margin business model.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Barnes & Noble faces setback in Microsoft antitrust complaint
Microsoft may have scored an early victory in its legal tussle with Barnes & Noble. The two companies are engaged in parallel battles, one via the Department of Justice, another via United States International Trade Commission. In March 2011, Microsoft
accused Barnes & Noble of patent infringement with its NOOK and NOOK Color products; in retaliation, Barnes & Noble made a broad complaint claiming that Microsoft is being an
abusive monopoly and that the patents are in any case irrelevant. That antitrust complaint looks likely to be
rejected by the ITC, a decision that favors Microsoft.
The document dismissing the antitrust complaint is under seal; however, its title, "Initial Determination Granting Microsoft's Motion for Summary Determination of Respondents' First Affirmative Defense of Patent Misuse," is public, with intellectual property analyst Florian Mueller certain that this means rejection of the claim. Mueller has been commissioned by Microsoft to conduct a study on the worldwide use of FRAND patents.
Microsoft has welcomed the ITC's decision. "Today's action by the ITC makes clear that Barnes & Noble's patent misuse defense was meritless," said deputy general counsel David Howard. Redmond remains open to offering licenses to the bookseller, adding it to the
growing list of Android-using companies that pay a fee to Microsoft, with Howard adding, "We remain as open as ever to extending a license to Barnes & Noble, and invite them to join the many other major device makers in paying for the Microsoft-developed intellectual property they use in their devices."
Barnes & Noble's antitrust complaint was made as an affirmative defense against Microsoft's action. Dismissal of this defense has looked likely since June, when ITC staff pointed out that patent law in general creates no obligation to offer licenses or make those licenses freely available. The Department of Justice may arrive at a different conclusion to the ITC.
The ITC action is still on-going, and with the antitrust defense dismissed will focus on the validity and applicability of the patents in question. Earlier this month, Microsoft removed one patent from the suit entirely, and also dropped several of the claims relating to the four remaining patents. In dropping the claims, Microsoft stipulated that the action was "not an admission as to the merits of any claim," but rather was meant to "simplify the Investigation, streamline the hearing, and converse the Parties' and Commission's resources in consideration of the amount of time allotted for the hearing."
The ITC trial will start on Monday, February 6th.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Samsung in hot water with EU over 3G FRAND patent lawsuits
The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it has begun a
formal investigation into Samsung's strategy of using FRAND-encumbered patents related to 3G wireless networking standards in lawsuits. The announcement comes after the Commission began a
preliminary inquiry into the matter last November and several courts in the EU have struck down Samsung's attempts to use the patents against Apple.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Resignations, fallout from recent bizarre scientific publications
The
strange paper that made its way from an obscure journal called
Life to headlines at a number of ostensible news sites has continued to make waves this week. As we noted in our update to the story, Case Western Reserve University not only removed the press release from its site, but is now
undertaking a review of how press releases are handled by that office. Presumably, they'll consider mechanisms that will allow a press officer to exercise some judgement before acceding to a request by a faculty member that wants to see his or her work promoted.
But that's not the only place where people are undertaking a bit of reevaluation. Science journalist Carl Zimmer noticed that a member of
Life's editorial board
had been a source for a recent story, so he got in touch to ask about its editorial practices. After looking into the matter, the scientist resigned from the board; Zimmer found that he wasn't the only one, as a number of other names have been removed from
Life's webpages. LiveScience also heard of
a number of resignations.
This wasn't the only recent paper that's causing a similar response.
Nature News is reporting that at least one editor
is resigning from the journal that published a paper that attempted to cast doubt on the well-established fact that HIV causes AIDS. In both cases, the editor who handled the papers have claimed that they went through the journals' standard review process.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
New tactic in mass file-sharing lawsuit: just insult the EFF
An old legal aphorism says, "If the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. If the law is on your side, pound on the law. If neither is on your side, pound on the table." After reading the latest salvo in the P2P porn copyright wars, it's clear that some poor table has been abused horrifically.
The craziness comes from the most recent filing in a Hard Drive Productions case against nearly 1,500 "Doe" defendants accused of sharing one of the company's films online. The case, filed in DC, follows the familiar pattern: sue anonymous Internet users in some random federal court, use the case to obtain subpoenas, unearth the identity of the Internet users, and send them "settlement letters" offering to save them from litigation if they would just pay a few thousand dollars.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
En Masse sees most foreigners as security risk to N. American TERA servers
MMO operators are faced with a constant battle with hackers, gold farmers, and other exploiters, working tirelessly to identify and ban them before they can ruin the experience for honest players. But En Masse, the North American publisher of upcoming MMO
TERA has announced a much simpler plan for stopping ne'er-do-wells from getting into its North American servers—simply block large swathes of the world from playing on its servers.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Fake Windows updater targets government contractors, stealing sensitive data
Two security companies today released a
joint report describing an ongoing series of attacks against government contractors that have been occurring since at least early 2009. According to the vendors
Seculert and Zscaler, attackers are sending firms phishing e-mails with fake invitations to conferences, often in the form of PDF files that exploit flaws in Adobe Reader. The file installs what the vendors call an "MSUpdater" Trojan that poses as a legitimate Windows Update process. In reality, the Trojan is a remote access tool that can steal information from a company's network for as long as the breach remains undiscovered.
"Foreign and domestic (United States) companies with intellectual property dealing in aero/geospace and defense seem to be some of the recent industries targeted in these attacks," the report states, without identifying specific attack targets.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Browett seen as bad for Apple thanks to Dixons' poor reputation
John Browett, CEO of Dixons Retail, whom Apple
plans to appoint as its senior vice president of its retail operations in April, may be a poor choice to succeed Apple's former SVP Ron Johnson if customer service, clean stores, and great products are still priorities for the company. Numerous readers have let Ars know that they feel Dixons' stores are messy, staffed with clueless salespeople, and sell low-quality goods. Because of this, some consumers worry that the new hire may be a harbinger of bad things to come for Apple's otherwise highly respected retail stores.
Apple CEO Tim Cook praised Browett for his commitment to customer service in a statement earlier today. "We are thrilled to have him join our team and bring his incredible retail experience to Apple," Cook said. Dixons' website
claims the company has "become a bit customer obsessed lately."
But that seems to go against the description given to us by several readers about the customer service at Dixons stores—branded Curry's and PC World in the UK—which they described as "shite" and "the epitome of appalling service."
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Firefox 10 arrives with new dev tools and full-screen API
Mozilla has officially released Firefox 10. The new version of the open source Web browser includes a handful of improvements and new features. The browser's built-in tools for Web developers got a particularly significant boost in this release. The new version also offers better support for a number of Web standards.
Firefox's developers decided last year to transition the browser to a time-based, six-week release cycle. The new release management strategy ensures that performance improvements and support for new Web standards reach users as soon as possible. The faster release cycle posed challenges, however, for enterprise adopters and other users who require a longer a longer support period. In order to address that issue, Mozilla has decided to offer an annual
extended support release with a full year of updates. Firefox 10 is the first official extended support release.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Teen Anal Nightmare P2P lawyer charged with felony (Updated)
The saga of West Virginia's homegrown P2P porn lawyer appears headed to a strange, sad end after felony charges were filed against him in state court.
Lawyer Kenneth J. Ford of Martinsville, West Virginia filed more than 22,000 "John Doe" lawsuits in 2010 against people across the country, accusing them of downloading super-raunchy films like
Teen Anal Nightmare 2 and
Juicy White Anal Booty 4 from the Internet.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
AVSEQ: Engaging gem-matching fails to mesh with trippy musical visualizations
AVSEQ (pronounced ay-vee-seck, I'm told) stands for Audiovisual Sequencer, putting it in a class of abstract, interactive audiovisual experiments that runs from
Simon all the way through and past
Electroplankton. It's a tough game to evaluate as a whole, though, because the "audiovisual" portion and the "sequencer" portion, both interesting in their own right, fail to mesh together in a satisfying way and each seem to actively work against the enjoyment of the other.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
"Mobile Device Privacy Act" would prevent secret smartphone monitoring
Recent controversy sparked by the installation of
monitoring software on millions of smartphones has led US Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) to propose a requirement that carriers and phone makers inform consumers about the presence of monitoring software and gain their "express consent" before collecting and transmitting information from phones.
The controversy started a couple months back when a developer publicized the widespread use of Carrier IQ software, which phone manufacturers and carriers use to monitor what happens on a smartphone. While
Apple, Samsung, HTC, AT&T and others all said the software is used only as a diagnostics tool to improve network and service performance, congressmen started denouncing the use of Carrier IQ, and class-action lawsuits were filed.
Markey, co-chairman of the bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus, says such software should only be used on a consumer's phone with the phone user's explicit consent. Yesterday, he
released draft legislation that would require disclosure of monitoring software when a consumer buys a mobile phone. The legislation also would prevent manufacturers from collecting and transmitting information unless consumer consent is obtained, and outlines security policies companies must follow when they receive personal information from smartphones.
“Consumers have the right to know and to say no to the presence of software on their mobile devices that can collect and transmit their personal and sensitive information,”
Markey said in a statement. “While consumers rely on their phones, their phones relay all sorts of information about them, often without their knowledge or consent." Markey's legislation is just in a "discussion draft" right now, so it's early in the legislative process. It would also take a while to be enforced. The draft directs the Federal Trade Commission to promulgate regulations described in the legislation "not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act."
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Apple retail has a new boss: Dixons head John Browett
Apple
announced early Tuesday morning that it has found a replacement for Ron Johnson, the former senior vice president of retail that started Apple's successful foray in to brick and mortar sales in 2001. John Browett, former CEO of European electronics retailer Dixons Retail, will become Apple's new SVP of retail beginning in April.
Johnson was originally hired from Target in 2000 to jumpstart Apple's retail initiative. Though highly criticized at the time, Apple's retail strategy has been credited with helping bring the company from struggling computer maker ten years ago to a $108 billion a year consumer electronics giant. Among other strategies, Johnson was the man behind Apple's Genius Bar concept, the
One to One service program, and the
recently launched "EasyPay" self-checkout system.
Johnson
left Apple in June 2011 to become CEO of department store JC Penney, which left Apple
searching for a replacement for the last seven months. But Apple has now apparently found what it was looking for in Browett, who had also served as CEO of Tesco.com before working for Dixons.
"Our retail stores are all about customer service, and John shares that commitment like no one else we've met," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. "We are thrilled to have him join our team and bring his incredible retail experience to Apple."
Developer Matt Gemmell, a native of Scotland, sees the partnership in a slightly different light. Gemmell suggested Apple chose Browett for his ostensible penchant for premium priced products, noting that Dixons is a company "that agrees cables should cost a minimum of $30."
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Apple issues second update to Final Cut Pro X to appease video pros (Updated)
Apple has issued another update to its video editing software Final Cut Pro X, which the company describes as "significant" despite the relatively minor version number bump (v.10.0.3). The three major features that Apple is touting as part of this update are multicam editing capabilities, advanced chroma keying, and improved XML support for "a richer interchange with third party apps and plug-ins that support the fast growing Final Cut Pro X ecosystem." The update is free to all current users through the Mac App Store.
Apple says FCPX's new multicam feature can automatically sync video via audio waveforms, time and date, or timecodes in order to create a clip with up to 64 video angles. The multicam clips can include mixed formats (if that's your thing), different frame sizes, and even different frame rates. As for the chroma key improvements, Apple says that the new advanced controls include color sampling, edge adjustment, and light wrap.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Researchers boycott publisher; will they embrace instant publishing?
Many scientists were miffed by the introduction of the
Research Works Act, which would roll back the US government's open access policy for research it funds. Some of that annoyance was directed toward the commercial publishers that were supporting the bill. That, combined with a series of grievances about the pricing policies of one publisher, Elsevier, has now led a number of scientists to start a boycott—they won't publish in or review for journals from that publisher.
At the moment,
the site where the academics are organizing the boycott is down, but the signatories were heavily biased towards math and the physical sciences.
This wasn't the only news from the publishing world, however. The
Faculty of 1000 is a site that organizes what's been termed "post-publication peer review." Instead of reviewing publications prior to their being published, the Faculty of 1000 comments on papers in their areas of research after they've been published, adding an additional layer of quality and sanity checking (something that, unfortunately,
is often needed).
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Available Tags:
Linux ,
profits ,
Microsoft ,
Samsung ,
security ,
Windows ,
Apple ,
Firefox ,
smartphone ,
