IT News HeadLines (HardOCP) 01/11/2010

Diaspora Delays Public Alpha to Thanksgiving
The open source Facebook alternative has been delayed again. The public alpha server is now aimed for a Thanksgiving release. I personally think Diaspora has missed their opportunity. For awhile there the media was really creating quite a buzz about Facebook privacy concerns, but most of that has completely vanished in the time Diaspora has been in development. Our basic feature set is almost done. Once that is stable, we'll set up an alpha server so that anyone, not just developers, can try Diaspora and help us improve it. We're shooting to do this before Thanksgiving. Comments
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Random USB Drives Protruding From the Wall
Aram Bartholl, as part of an art project, has embedded multiple USB drives in walls and curbs throughout New York. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not going to plug my computer into some random public USB. The idea is to create an anonymous, offline file-sharing network in public space. The drives are completely public and anyone can plug in to drop and download files. Comments
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[H]appy [H]alloween
I figure everyone might need a little help perfecting their costume, so here's a video on how to create authentic and realistic horror-film blood. If you want fake blood done right, you've got to turn to the professionals. And I'm pretty sure the "I wish this blood were real/yours" look in this man's eyes qualifies him as professional. Comments
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Unfreeze Your Money
One of PayPal's competitors dropped off 600lbs of ice outside of a PayPal conference earlier this week letting everyone know that "PayPal freezes your accounts." What a cool idea. In some ways, PayPal has this coming — and not just because of its account freeze issues. Back in its earlier days when it was still sparring with eBay, a group of PayPal employees headed to southern California for a major eBay event. The PayPal team then proceeded to offer conference attendees a chance at winning hundreds of dollars — but only if they wore special PayPal-branded T-shirts to the conference the next day. Many of them did, and eBay got to watch its conference get taken over by a competitor. Of course, eBay then went on to acquire PayPal. Comments
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GE Buying 'Tens of Thousands' of EVs
I guess you could call this putting your money where your mouth is. General Electric will be placing the largest order ever for electric cars. Of course this is not a blind gesture on their part; GE has a vested interest in developing the electric car market worldwide. Immelt didn't specify a timeline for when the purchases would be made, nor did he identify which manufacturer(s) would receive the order. Smith told Bloomberg an order of that size would be filled by several companies. But our money is on Renault-Nissan getting the bulk of it. Comments
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Turkey Lifts Its Ban on YouTube
The 2 year block on YouTube in Turkey has been lifted by Ankara's General Attorney. The initial block to You Tube centered on insults to Turkey's founder, which is an offense under Turkey's penal code. "We've received reports that some users in Turkey are once again able to access YouTube...We want to be clear that a third party, not YouTube, have apparently removed some of the videos that have caused the blocking of YouTube in Turkey using our automated copyright complaint process." Comments
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Real Men Use Android
The U.S. Army is breaking with a tradition in custom communications and turning to an off the shelf solution for its Special Forces. The Army is making use of Android phones for missions in low connectivity areas due to its programmable open source code. One benefit of using Android-run devices is that Android keeps its source code open. If special operators find that the TactSA functions don't quite meet their needs, they could conceivably design their own. Comments
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We're From Microsoft...You Can Trust Us
Microsoft Update is playing musical chairs with patch KB 976902. The update was there one minute and gone the next with no information on what it was. If you had Automatic Updates turned on, you probably received it and the bad news is it isn't removable. Thanks for the surprise gift Microsoft. Here's where we stand now. The patch isn't listed on Windows Update. The KB article has been posted, but it doesn't include a link to the patch -- and it isn't clear at all where, or even if, the patch is currently available. Comments
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Stop Firesheep With FireShepherd
We had an article on Firesheep several days ago, bringing attention that the tool can compromise your internet security at public hotspots. Welcome the remedy to that problem. FireShepherd was created to crush the packet sniffer and restore some small vestige of privacy back to your wireless connection according to the guys over at GigaOM. While the developer behind Firesheep claims the tool was released to demonstrate the vulnerability of private information at public Wi-Fi hotspots, it has been downloaded over 200,000 times. Comments
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World's Most Precise Clocks Could Reveal Universe Is a Hologram
Feeling a little flat lately? It could be that you are only a 2-D holographic projected image perceived to be 3-D. Far fetched radical hypothesis or a yet to be found astrophysical fact? We may learn the answer in less than a year, that is if time is still relevant. The holographic principle, derived from weirdness theorized to occur at the boundaries of black holes, says reality could be a 3-D projection of a 2-D plane of information. It's much the same way a hologram printed on a credit card creates the illusion of a 3-D object but, as Hogan explained, we can't perceive the 2-D surface. Comments
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10 Most Gadgety Halloween Costumes
In honor of the upcoming Halloween festivities tomorrow, its time to show off some of the more geeky costumes you may or may not see out on Halloween night. I'll take the Kikai walker myself. Maybe not the best costume, but you can bet no one will argue your choice. Comments
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