Ponca City writes “MySpace has unveiled an overhauled website and logo as it attempts to recapture the magic that led it to top the social-networking sphere. According to the report ‘MySpace is positioning itself for the so-called Gen Y crowd, or those roughly between 10 and 30 years old.’ A beta version of the new website will start rolling out Wednesday and is slated to be accessible to users globally by the end of November. Plans are for the site to focus on entertainment with the home page constantly updating items about music, movies and television shows that are most discussed on the site at any one time.”
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bednarz writes “Google is now the second-largest carrier of Internet traffic, accounting for 6.4% of all web traffic, according to data released this week by Arbor Networks. But should IT execs care? Yes, says Craig Labovitz, Arbor’s chief scientist, who argues that IT managers need to understand how macro Internet traffic trends will affect the design and management of their own network backbones. ‘This will affect how enterprises plan their services… whether they host their own services or whether they use cloud vendors,’ Labovitz says. ‘The enterprise needs to shift its thinking in terms of [service level agreements] and the way it measures, monitors and secures its networks. That all used to be focused on connectivity, but now it needs to be focused on content.’”
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T Murphy writes “The Supreme Court, when ruling that corporate and union political donations were allowed under free speech, assumed the source of the donation would be disclosed immediately under current donation laws. Due to loopholes, this has not been the case, eliminating the hoped-for transparency the Supreme Court ruled to be vital to democracy. Justice Kennedy, who sided with the majority on the ruling, has been called naive for his expectation that there would be greater transparency. In the meantime, campaign spending for House candidates alone is expected to reach $1.5 billion.”
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andydread writes “It seems Microsoft’s campaign to scare manufacturers away from open source and Linux in particular is proceeding at full force. The latest news is from Digitimes out of Taiwan. Apparently Microsoft is threatening Acer and Asustek to pay Microsoft a license fee for the privilege of deploying Linux on their devices. This time in the form of Android and Chorme OS. So basically this campaign is spreading to PC vendors now. What are the implications of this? Does this mean that if I build PCs with Linux (Ubuntu/ChromeOS/Fedora) and sell them I am at risk of getting sued by Microsoft? “
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Appolicious – QR codes are popping up everywhere. Although there are plenty of apps available to help you read them, there’s now a service to help you create and manage them, with the release of Paperlinks.com’s app Paperlinks for iPhone and iPod touch.
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Zothecula writes “The solar storms that cause the stunning aurora borealis and aurora australis (or northern and southern polar lights) also have the potential to knock out telecommunications equipment and navigational systems and cause blackouts of electrical grids. With the frequency of the sun’s flares following an 11-year cycle of solar activity and the next solar maximum expected around 2013, scientists are bracing for an overdue, once-in-100 year event that could cause widespread power blackouts and cripple electricity grids around the world. It sounds like an insurmountable problem but a new NASA project called ‘Solar Shield’ is working to develop a forecasting system that can mitigate the impacts of such events and keep the electrons flowing.”
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tekgoblin writes “There have been numerous reasons why the White iPhone 4 may be delayed with one reason being the color mismatch between the home button and the body. Well this time there is another reason. A source has told CultofMac that the reason for the delay is a light leakage issue caused by the case being clear. Light from the case leaks into pictures taken by the back and front camera on the White iPhone 4 causing distorted pictures. This problem is non-existent on the Black iPhone 4 because of its already black case so Apple has been looking for a solution to this problem thus the delay of the White iPhone 4 till spring of next year.”
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Appolicious – Vlingo is a words-to-action app for your Android that allows you to compose text messages and emails, update social networking statuses, conduct web searches, and make phone calls – all using voice command.
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AP – China said Thursday it will not use exports of rare earths, exotic minerals required by high-tech industry, as a diplomatic “bargaining tool” while Washington pressed Beijing to clarify its policy following its de facto ban on supplies to Japan.
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Motorola reported growth in sales and profit for the third quarter, helped by the sale of an increasing number of Android-based smartphones, the company said on Thursday.
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tekgoblin writes “Zynga, the creators of the popular hit Facebook game FarmVille, should be happy today as the company’s worth has passed that of EA (Electronic Arts).”
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Orome1 writes “Sixty-one percent of Americans said the President should have the ability to shut down portions of the Internet in the event of a coordinated malicious cyber attack, according to research by Unisys. The survey found that while Americans are taking proactive steps to protect themselves against cybercrime and identity theft, only slightly more than a third of Internet users in the U.S. regularly use and update passwords on their mobile devices – creating a potentially huge security hole for organizations as more consumer devices invade the workplace. The findings illustrate that recent events such as the Stuxnet computer worm attack and the attempted Times Square car bombing may have heightened the American public’s awareness of and concern over global and domestic cybersecurity threats.”
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Your business finally joined Twitter–great, right? You started strong, growing your followers quickly. You tweeted consistently, pushing out a handful of updates each day. But now things have slowed down –your followers have trailed off. Your retweets are few and far between. And–oops–it’s been a few days since your last tweet.
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More than a dozen vendors created a working group to create a new SSD interconnect standard that would allow equipment manufacturers to use SAS, SATA or PCIe as a plug-in in their devices.
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sosaited writes “It has been widely believed that our ancestors originated out of Africa, but a paper published in Nature by Carnegie Museum of Natural History scientists puts this in doubt. The paper is based on the fossils of 4 primate species found in Asia which are 40 million years old , during which period Africa was thought to not have these species. The diversity and timing of the new anthropoids raises two scenarios. Anthropoids might simply have emerged in Africa much earlier than thought, and gone undiscovered by modern paleontologists. Or they could have crossed over from Asia, where evidence suggests that anthropoids lived 55 million years ago, flourishing and diversifying in the wide-open ecological niches of an anthropoid-free Africa.”
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digitaldc submitted the latest excuse to get a few days off: “A survey released this week revealed the latest affliction to hit white-collar workers. It’s called ‘information rage,’ and almost one in two employees is affected by it. Overwhelmed by the torrent of data flooding corporate workplaces, many are on the verge of breaking point. The aftermath of all this is the deterioration in quality that occurs when flustered employees — unable to sort through a pile of information fast enough — end up submitting work that’s substandard. Almost three quarters of the survey’s respondents declared their work has suffered as a result.”
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Appolicious – Cool updates to some cool free services top today’s Fresh Apps. You’ll want to download the new Paypal update to add fast checkouts to your mobile purchases. Check out the rest below.
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BOISE, ID—Local auto-repair specialist Jim Ervine told reporters Thursday that an attractive woman he has spotted at the 4th Avenue Tavern may possess enough physical flaws not to simply reject him out of hand.
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A massive takedown operation conducted by Dutch police and security experts earlier this week does not appear to have completely dissolved the Bredolab botnet, but it is unlikely to recover.
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Mashable – Welcome to this morningâs edition of âFirst To Know,â a series in which we keep you in the know on whatâs happening in the digital world. Weâre keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today.
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WASHINGTON, DC—Mountain Dew sends young people down a dangerous path that could even lead to Jolt or Surge.
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Kethinov writes “The sci-fi TV series Caprica, a prequel spinoff from Battlestar Galactica, was just canceled by the Syfy channel. In response to the cancellation and the recent theme of many similar good sci-fi shows getting canceled over the last few years, I’ve written an editorial arguing that Caprica’s cancellation reflects the decreasing sustainability of the cable TV business model. A better, more modern business model could have saved Caprica from cancellation. If this model is adopted in the future, it could save many other similar niche genre shows from the same fate down the road.” Another perspective here might be that a boring, ponderous show got yoinked because nobody watched it. Just sayin’.
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In the latest of a series of actions meant to bolster the E.U.-wide,1995 Data Protection Directive, the European Commission announced on Thursday that it is taking Austria to court for failing to establish a completely independent data protection authority.
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Oracle announced late Wednesday that it has taken a 10.2 percent stake in Mellanox Technologies, maker of Infiniband interconnects for servers and storage systems.
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mask.of.sanity writes “An Australian high school has installed ‘secure’ fingerprint scanners for roll call for senior students, which savvy kids may be able to circumvent with sweets from their lunch box. The system replaces the school’s traditional sign-in system with biometric readers that require senior students to have their fingerprints read to verify attendance. The school principal says the system is better than swipe cards because it stops truant kids getting their mates to sign-in for them. But using the Gummi Bear attack, students can make replicas of their own fingerprints from gelatin, the ingredient in Gummi Bears, to forge a replica finger. The attack worked against a bunch of scanners that detect electrical charges within the human body, since gelatin has virtually the same capacitance as a finger’s skin.”
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Nintendo reported a 2.01 billion yen (US$24.6 million) net loss for the six months to Sept. 30, as its sales of hardware and software dropped, the company said on Thursday. It sold 42 percent fewer handheld game consoles than a year earlier.
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Digital Trends – Motorola has a hit smartphone line on its hands, something it hasn’t been able to say for several years. The mobile phone manufacturer posted revenue of $5.8 billion in the third quarter of 2010, while estimates had it pegged at $5.66 billion. It is Motorola’s first year-over-year revenue increase since late 2006, reports Bloomberg. The company can thank its CEO Sanjay Jha’s gamble on the Android smartphone OS for the increase in sales. Android has become the most popular smartphone operating system, overtaking the iPhone, thanks to successful devices like the Motorola Droid line.
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brothke writes “CyberForensics: Understanding Information Security Investigations is a new book written by a cast of industry all-stars. The book takes a broad look at cyberforensics with various case studies. Each of the books 10 chapters takes a different approach to the topic. The book is meant to be a source guide to the core ideas on cyberforensics.” Read on for the rest of Ben’s review.
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Sony has announced it will no longer manufacture the Walkman, the cassette player that revolutionized music portability 30 years ago.
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An anonymous reader writes “Liberals may owe their political outlook partly to their genetic make-up, according to new research from the University of California, San Diego, and Harvard University. Ideology is affected not just by social factors, but also by a dopamine receptor gene called DRD4. The study’s authors say this is the first research to identify a specific gene that predisposes people to certain political views.”
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Digital Trends – It isn’t hard to get a phone for free from a wireless carrier, but it is hard to get a great phone for free, which is why this deal at Wirefly has caught our eye. If you activate a two-year Verizon Wireless contract through Wirefly, a free HTC Droid Incredible will be shipped to you for free. It normally retails for $199 with a plan. The offer is good for new and existing VZW customers. Unfortunately, there is a $35 activation fee, but no more than you’ll pay at an actual Verizon store.
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coondoggie writes “NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center said it is set to auction an exclusive license to five patents it holds for automated software development on November 11, 2010. NASA said the technology was originally developed to handle coding of control code for spacecraft swarms, but it is applicable to any commercial application where rule-based systems development is used.”
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