IT News HeadLines (HardOCP) 25/09/2010

[H]ard|Forum Sneak-Peak Weekend!
Ever wonder what everyone does in our General Mayhem forum? Well, wonder no more, we are having another one of our famous sneak peak weekends where access to General Mayhem and its sub-forums is open all weekend to registered / logged in members! Well, what are you waiting for? Hit the link and join in on all the fun (we'll see you in there)!
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DOJ Settles No-Recruit Claims Against Tech Companies
It seems the Department of Justice has reached a settlement with six of the biggest names in the tech industry over non-solicitation agreements the companies had with each other. Let the head hunting, cold-calling and sniping begin! The DOJ had been investigating a variety of interlocking broad agreements between six companies--Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, and Pixar--that prohibited them from soliciting one another's employees, which the DOJ said today "eliminated a significant form of competition to attract highly skilled employees." The settlement, if approved, would end the investigation and likely discourage such agreements between other high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. Comments
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The Information Dividend: Why IT Makes You 'Happier'
A new global study claims that access to information technology has a "statistically significant, positive impact on life satisfaction." Additionally, the report showed women, those on low incomes and few educational qualifications benefit most from access to IT. Not only do women gain more than men from access to, and use, of technology, they also achieve greater increased life satisfaction from using it. Comments
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Countdown to GIGABYTE GO OC 2010 Final Competition
Final Countdown to GIGABYTE GO OC 2010 Final Competition on 9/25/10! We are excited to share this great news with you! For those of you are not able to attend the final battle in Taipei, GIGABYTE, in conjunction with Overclocking TV and OCQQ, will provide a video stream live from the event, so you can be sure not to miss out on any of the extreme LN2 action. This year, we will have both English and Chinese versions of the live broadcast for the GO OC competition at our GO OC website. You can also log in below to the following medias' websites to see our live broadcast directly. Comments
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Free App + Your Picture = Cool Case
For those of you out there not having any luck finding a cool case for your phone, check out this free iPhone app that lets you design your own case. Any of you tried this yet? Comments
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Details on Yesterday's Facebook Outage
For those of you still wondering why Facebook was down for a few hours yesterday, there is an explanation posted on the company's engineering page. The key flaw that caused this outage to be so severe was an unfortunate handling of an error condition. An automated system for verifying configuration values ended up causing much more damage than it fixed. Comments
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Google Finally Announces Project 10^100 Winners
Google has finally announced the winners of Project 10^100. Unfortunately for you and I, our names are not on the list. The contest was first announced back in 2008 but has taken quite a long time to reach its conclusion, after Google changed the project to focus on "themes" rather than specific ideas. Sixteen themes were selected exactly a year ago, and the public was given an opportunity to vote on the themes most worthy of funding. Comments
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Restrictions On Android Would Violate Principle Of Open Source?
Google CEO Eric Schmidt, while attending a recent press luncheon, gave an interesting answer when asked about forcing carriers to allow "clean" Android installations on mobile devices. Schmidt said that it would "violate the principle of open source." Comments
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Intel's App Store Renamed
I just noticed that Intel has renamed its app store and has decided to waive its $99 registration fee as well. If you are an app dev, head on over and check out AppUp. If you are a developer, find everything you need to easily develop and sell applications for the Intel AppUpSM center here: Powerful tools—including an SDK, easy deployment and validation, Developer Catalog to buy and sell application components, Application Labs in addition to a vibrant online community for support. Comments
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Microsoft Wants to Lead PC Revolution
The GM of Microsoft Games Studios says the company needs to step up and put more resources behind PC gaming. Amen to that. I think we can all agree that it would be nice to see the gaming industry refocus its efforts on the PC. "There's been a fair bit of criticism aimed at Microsoft that we were spending a lot of our focus on console, and we need to be putting resources behind PC as well," Microsoft Games Studios' general manager Dave Luehmann told MCV in an interview. Comments
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Netflix CEO Apologizes for "Awkward Joke"
Reed Hastings has issued an apology for the moronic statement he made yesterday about American's being "self absorbed." My Big American Foot is in my mouth. Yesterday, I made an awkward joke with a reporter in Toronto about Americans (like me) being self-absorbed relative to Netflix pricing in Canada. I was wrong to have made the joke, and I do not believe that one of the most philanthropically-minded nations in the world (America) is self-absorbed or full of self-absorbed people. Ongoing Discussion
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DSL, Now Offering Speeds of 700 Mbps
Have you ever noticed that, regardless what internet service provider you are with at the time, it's always some other ISP setting records like this? Huawei, the telecom gear maker, today said it has achieved speeds of 700 Mbps over DSL using a prototype shown in Hong Kong: the fastest DSL we've seen. Earlier this year, Alcatel-Lucent showed off 300 Mbps over DSL that could travel for 400 meters , because with copper, it's not just speed, but how far an ISP could deliver those speeds. Huawei has managed its top speed for 400 meters as well. Comments
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