Topics

501

Developer's Corner / Facebook, Bebo and Myspace Application Developers Micro-Payment System

« on: March 16, 2010, 06:12 PM »

How It Works:

Spare Change is simple. Users fund their Spare Change account with their credit card, PayPal, bank account or mobile phone - or complete marketing offers and surveys. Users use Spare Change instantly on all of their favorite social network applications.

Raw Link: http://sparechangeinc.com

502

Living Room / Cafepress Alternatives - Find out the truth about 'CP's' biggest competitors.

« on: March 16, 2010, 06:04 PM »

CafePress Alternatives & Competitors
Three main competitors are challenging CafePress. Links to each company and a review of each alternative "print on demand" service.
You've spent countless hours creating designs. Now you're ready to open your own online store & make money selling your T-shirts and merchandise! What print on demand service should you choose? Here are the three main competitors of CafePress.com so you can decide for yourself!

Raw Link: http://www.squidoo.c...afepress_alternative

503

Living Room / Facebook urged over 'panic button'

« on: March 16, 2010, 02:39 PM »

This isn't really Tech News worthy, so I figured I would post it as more of a rant, than anything that needs replies to...

Home Secretary Alan Johnson will hold talks with Facebook later this week about the social networking site's refusal to install a "panic button" to allow children to report suspected paedophiles.

Mr Johnson and junior Home Office minister Alan Campbell will meet representatives from the site in an attempt to persuade them to install the button, which links to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) centre.

Mr Campbell told MPs he could see no reason why Facebook and other social networking sites would not adopt the system.

Calls for Facebook to install the button on its website have intensified following the conviction of Peter Chapman for the kidnap, rape and murder of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall.

Convicted sex offender Chapman used a false identity to befriend and entrap the teenager through Facebook, which has some 23 million UK users.

Mr Campbell, responding to a debate in Parliament's Westminster Hall, said he was "disappointed" that not all social networking sites had added Ceop's "report abuse" panic button.

He said: "I expect those responsible for provision of services online to take responsibility for providing safety mechanisms and information to their users and, in the case of services where there can be communication between people who are not previously know to each other and where identities can be invented, to provide the click Ceop button to allow users who feel threatened or vulnerable to make a report."

Mr Campbell continued: "We have argued... that the Ceop button should be used by all of those sites and many sites have either agreed to take them or agreed to take them at some point in the future, such as Bebo.

"We see absolutely no reason why sites should not do so.

"Later this week the Home Secretary and I will be meeting with Facebook to impress upon them the need to allow users who feel threatened to have access to the Ceop button."

Source Website

<solution1>

Don't let your freakin kids use social networking websites!

<solution2>

From the Facebook Help Centre:

What is the minimum age required to sign up for Facebook? How old do you have to be?
In order to be eligible to sign up for Facebook, users must be thirteen (13) years of age or older.

Users who are 18 years or younger should have seriously restricted options on Facebook.  Now I know people lie, and kids lie all the damn time, but the ones who put their true age in, should have all friends requests, private messages, comments etc...moderated by their parents (Parents would have to sign their kids up and link their FB account to their children's)

Seems logical to me!


All in all, I do NOT agree with anybody under 18 using social networking websites...They can be very dangerous places.

Examples of websites that should be removed/changed:

Myspace
Faceparty
BEBO (Main culprit)

Bebo actually WANTS every child in the world to sign up...don't ask me why, or what their reasons are...but it is a nasty website and should be more heavily moderated.

Faceparty...well...go look at it...you will understand why I hate it!

Myspace is just crap...end of conversation on that...



End of Rant

504

Living Room / Yay, Upgrade time! - Inspire me with hardware I can buy =-D

« on: March 16, 2010, 01:55 PM »

Hey guys,

In the next few weeks, I am hoping to find the time to upgrade what has become my main machine since I broke my beast 

Currently...I'm running on:

Onboard Graphics
Onboard Sound
1GB RAM
3.0GHz P4
19" 1080p Screen
Appx 4TB of HDD Space {Internal + External} (Prob the only good thing about this machine lol)


My MOBO doesn't support PCI-e or AGP...gawd knows why, but it doesn't matter much cause i have a gigabyte 7NF-RZ sat in a drawer of my PC table doing nothing and even though its old, it supports AGP, so if not good PCI gfx cards are available, then i suppose ill change my mobo to the GB one lol.


Anyone got any good ideas/links to what I should stick in the machine?

Thanks

-Stephen

 

505

Living Room / Donationcoder: How did you find it + What has your experience been like so far.

« on: March 15, 2010, 09:27 PM »

Hey guys, was just talking in the Donation Coder IRC Channel and we got to talking about how we all found DC and its awesome forum

So, the question is, how did you find DC, and what do you think of it 

I was brought here by app103, and I LOVE it

506

Living Room / Stephen's Weekly Tech News - Edition 5

« on: March 14, 2010, 07:15 PM »

Well...It's been 5 Weeks since I took the reigns on the Tech News section and a lot has happened since I started.

I have had A LOT of great feedback since starting and I must thank you all for your support in my new roles, here on DC!

Anyway, hope you enjoy this weeks edition of your Tech News  

-Stephen


Obama to 'aggressively protect' intellectual property

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama was young, a technology fan, and appeared to be an establishment outsider. For those reasons some techies hoped he might be sympathetic to copyright reform.

Those hopes are fading fast as President Obama appears to have lined up on the side of....Read More...


At SXSWi, Facebook flexes its gaming muscle

AUSTIN, Texas--Facebook envisions its technology as a powerful unifying force in the gaming world, games program manager Gareth Davis said to a packed house of eager coders at the social network's "Developer Garage" event on Sunday afternoon here. The get-together was held as part of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi), which drew developers and...Read More...


Shuttleworth heir opens up on Ubuntu biz

When you have Mark Shuttleworth as your backer, as commercial Linux distributor Canonical does, it is a bit like having money in the bank when the bank also believes fervently in your cause. It is a rare combination, and one that has allowed the Ubuntu project to reach out from its Linux desktop beginnings into commercial servers - and with the latest releases, cloudy infrastructure - without having the profit pressure that most startups have to deal with as they try to grow.

While Shuttleworth may be the...Read More...


Google '99.9%' certain to pull China search plug

Google is now "99.9 per cent" certain it will shut down its Chinese search engine, according to a report citing "a person familiar with the company's thinking."

The Financial Times reports that the web giant has drawn up detailed plans for closing Google.cn, saying the company's discussions with Chinese authorities reached an impasse. The news came hours after a Chinese minister warned Google that it would "have to bear the consequences" if it stopped censoring results on Google.cn.


On January 12, after alleged Chinese hackers pilfered some sort of intellectual property from the company, Google announced it had decided to "no longer" censor search results in China, saying it would spend "the next few weeks" in...Read More...


ICANN delays decision on pornography domain

ICANN has delayed its ruling on the proposed .xxx internet porn domain until this summer.

Today, at its meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, the ICANN board voted to push a decision to its next get-together in Brussels this June, while giving its CEO and chief counsel two weeks to prepare recommendations on how to proceed with the .xxx proposal. These recommendations will then be open to comment for 45 days, the AP reports.
 

In 2005, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - the net's overseeing body - approved a longstanding proposal for a top-level domain dedicated to pornography. But after opposition from various governments - including the US, natch - it went on to...Read More...


Android Has Enough Class for Opera

Users of Android smartphones now have a new option for browsing the Web: A beta version of Opera Mini 5 was released Thursday for the Linux-based Android platform. New features in the software, which is an upgrade to the current version 4.2, include tabbed browsing, Speed Dial, Opera Link and Download Manager...Read More


Can a Clown-Nosed Wand Move the Needle for PS3?

Sony put PlayStation 3 fans in a tizzy by whipping out its latest controller, which it calls the "Move." It looks a whole lot like a black version of Nintendo's WiiMote controller, only it's got this big, clown-nose ball on the end of it. That ball actually serves a purpose. The Move's motion is partially registered by a...Read More...


All Your Apps Are Belong to Apple: The iPhone Developer Program License Agreement

The entire family of devices built on the iPhone OS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) have been designed to run only software that is approved by Apple—a major shift from the norms of the personal computer market. Software developers who want Apple's approval must first agree to the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement.

So today we're posting the "iPhone Developer Program License Agreement"—the contract that every developer who writes software for the iTunes App Store must "sign." Though more than 100,000 app developers have clicked "I agree," public copies of the agreement are scarce, perhaps thanks to the prohibition on making any "public statements regarding this Agreement, its terms and conditions, or the...Read More...

Thanks to 40hz for linking me to this story


Sniffing Out an HTML5 Conspiracy

Should the next version of HTML, the Web standard that embodies how pages are laid out and constructed, include explicit specifications for inline, 2-D dynamic graphics? There's valid arguments on both sides. One side believes that the ability to plot charts and animations would have been part of the original HTML standard anyway, had the technology existed on the back end in the beginning; giving HTML 2-D graphics now, they say, plugs a hole left open for too long. Another believes the...Read More...


15 memorable quotes from the Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde

The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde was beamed into a conference room by Skype at South by South West Interactive today to talk to interviewer Elizabeth Stark about the Pirate Bay, his views on copyright and whether the Pirate Bay can ever be fully shut down.

While Sunde was often non-specific about the issues when pressed, he did drop some gems into the interview. Here are 15 of the most memorable quotes from his interview.

On why he didn't personally attend SXSWi:

"If I come to the US I will get so sued that I won't get out of the US for quite a while."

On the threatening letters received from lawyers...Read More...

Video of The Week

Thanks to mouser for the video to celebrate 'Pie Day'

Got a story you feel needs sharing with the world? Submit it to me via PM and, after approval and verification, I will happily add it to next weeks Tech News!

507

Living Room / Wanna win yourself £100,000 for breaking something?

« on: March 12, 2010, 07:58 PM »

http://www.playthefuture.co.uk/

508

Living Room / Scalpel + Pen + Excess Food + Bordom = Some funny end results

« on: March 10, 2010, 06:38 PM »

Now, I must stress, none of this work is mine.

I got them from a chain mail letter (my mother insists on sending me useless stuff every single day, and for once, she finally sent something of interest!)

So, here are the end results lol

509

Living Room / Stephen's Weekly Tech News - Edition 4

« on: March 06, 2010, 08:06 PM »

Welcome to this weeks edition of 'Stephen's Tech News' - By now, you all know that this is a selection of my favorite news stories from across the globe, and are placed in no particular order.  Anyway, I hope you are all as interested in them as I am!

-Stephen


A week off the grid and in touch with energy

There's nothing like living off-grid for a while to make you aware of your environmental and energy footprint. During a family vacation to Belize last week, I got a flavor for what's needed to function, albeit at a leisurely pace, when you're far beyond the reach of power lines.

This was a special trip, mostly paid for by....Read More...


Microsoft demos game across PC, mobile, and console platforms

Whoa. During the keynote presentation at TechEd Middle East in Dubai, Microsoft's Eric Rudder played the same Indiana Jones-ish game on a Windows computer, a Windows Phone 7 phone, and an Xbox 360. Gaming is about to get really ubiquitous.


Not only is the game itself playable on all three platforms, but the...Read More...


Robot avatar MeBot gives you wriggling bug body

In the future, all business meetings will be conducted by telepresence robots--on-site avatar machines that will take care of the boring business of earning a living while we sit back at home sipping lattes and generally enjoying our 300-year lifespans.
 (Credit: Sigurdur Orn)

Even if you don't believe telepresence robots are going to eliminate the need to get out of bed in the morning, it's hard to...Read More...


Some Newegg Customers Received Fake Intel Core i7s

Several readers have mentioned the strange goods that some customers received from Newegg in place of the Intel Core i7 920 processor they ordered. Word on the problem first surfaced on TribalWar on Thursday evening. Newegg still hasn't...Read More...


Steve Jobs: The Agony and the Ecstasy

A new play about tight-ship-running Apple CEO Steve Jobs is set to be staged at California's Berkeley Theatre early next year, penned by one of America's leading playwrights.

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs is to...Read More...


10 high tech cars to tear up the tarmac

Car technology is advancing quickly - partly to save the auto industry from imminent collapse, but also because tech innovations can help save lives on the road.

Besides, why not make your morning commute just a notch easier? These ten vehicles offer something new and innovative...Read More


Chile Earthquake May Have Shortened Days on Earth

he massive 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile may have changed the entire Earth's rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet, a NASA scientist said Monday.


The quake, the seventh strongest earthquake in recorded history, hit Chile Saturday and should have...Read More...


UK next-gen broadband gets funding body

Two major upgrades to the UK's broadband infrastructure have moved closer with the creation of an organisation which will allocate funding for the work.

On Thursday, the government launched Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), which will allocate funds for the two major schemes: the universal service commitment and next-generation broadband. The universal service commitment will ensure...Read More...


Spamhaus: Microsoft's botnet cull had little effect

Microsoft's takedown of the Waledac botnet has not been effective, according to some security researchers.

The throttling of Waledac, which Microsoft claimed to have achieved by means of legal action last week, has led to no appreciable reduction of junk mail coming from the botnet, anti-spam organisation Spamhaus told ZDNet UK on Tuesday.

"The amount of spam coming from...Read More...


ISPs attack 'misguided' site-blocking plan

The ISP Association has said it is outraged at an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill that would let copyright holders force ISPs to block websites accused of unlawfully giving access to copyrighted material.

In a statement on Thursday, ISPA said Amendment 120a, passed in the House of Lords on Tuesday, was "hastily constructed and...Read More...

Video of The Week

Seeing as nobody responded to my Video of The Week Competition I have decided to annoy you all with this:

510

General Software Discussion / Uninstall and Re-package installed software.

« on: March 04, 2010, 06:16 PM »

I was wondering (after reading 40hz's post about upgrading from xp to vista to win7) whether it is possible, to create a piece of software, that will, on UN-installation, re-package everything required ready for re-installation at a later date.

Obviously this wouldn't be easy, but would be highly practical and useful due to loads of people installing things, losing the installation files, then never being able to re-install after formatting/upgrading/system clean/crash etc...

Would be great to head some ideas/feedback in regards to this.

Cheers

Stephen

511

Living Room / MMORPG Players - What Games do you play + Plug for Myth of Soma Server

« on: March 03, 2010, 10:26 AM »

Anybody on here play MMORPG's?

If so, what do ya play?

Im currently back on one of the games i played YEARS ago, even tho there are NO official servers for it, and the game was abandoned, there is still a huge following and plenty of Free2Play servers are available for people to play about on.
Game I play is called 'Myth of Soma'

Wiki about the company who made it, and the game.

Official notice of server closure, account deletion and removal of services for: Legend of Mir 2, Legend of Mir 3, and Myth Of Soma.

http://www.gnonline.net/

Server I Play on (The best {and only} Free2Play Server):

www.remixworld.co.uk

Client download:

www.mythofsoma.info (choose: RemixFull.exe)

User Registration:

http://remixworld.co.uk/register.php

Community Forum

http://somadev.com/f...m/viewforum.php?f=42

Vote For This Server on XtremeTop100.com:

http://www.xtremetop....php?site=1132302456


Basically the whole point to the game is to kill monsters, get items and new weapons, and armours, and to level your character.

There are 2 worlds to choose from, Human World and Devil World (Human world has the most work done on it at the moment, but Devil world is being worked on).

The leveling system is like no other, and pretty hard to explain, but basically you get stats (strength, dexterity, intelligence, constitution, wisdom and more) by attacking monsters.

Also there are a LOT of quests which you can do (all of which are optional, but can really help you during the game if you choose to do them)

In game character chat, guild chat, area shouts and map shouts are just a selection of the chatting capabilities.

Loads of Monster Bosses to beat!

There are weekly events such as "Guild Village War" and "War of The Worlds" and other random events hosted by the Game Masters.

The game itself is 2D Isometric and the system is quite old, but has been heavily modified to suit today's gamers without affecting the game play.

To sum it all up, you guys should all, at least, try this game.  It's great fun!

Lemme know if any of you try it.

Screenies:

Skip to 2:44 - Everything before is for the v1 client download and connection.

Official Video Trailer for Myth of Soma - Sorry for the Korean language, this was never translated.

Currently the server is under major development but this does not stop the game being available to play.

The user count currently stands at approximately 100 but is steadily growing. (This is a very large number for a Free2Play Server.)

A community of developers are attempting to get to get together to re-create this awesome game but thus far, have been unsuccessful due to none of them being committed enough.

If anyone is a huge fan of a particular game, please post it in here like I have done and in the same style, including links, and info where needed.

Thanks

-Stephen

512

Living Room / Tech News Video of The Week - Competition

« on: February 27, 2010, 12:57 PM »

Hey guys,

As you have probably noticed, each week, I add a video to the bottom of the Tech News Post.

This video can be about anything and is literally just there for giggles.

What I am going to do, is try get you all involved with it, but to do this, I'm gonna need your help!

If you want a chance for your video, or choice of video (one you made, or even one you found on Youtube) then please submit it here, and at the end of the week, I will pick a winner.

Don't miss your chance to have your video submitted to the Tech News Thread!

513

Living Room / Stephen's Weekly Tech News - Edition 3

« on: February 27, 2010, 12:37 PM »

Hey Guys, sorry its a little bit later than normal, been a busy few days.  Anyway, here's your weekly dose of tech news.  Hope you enjoy!

Hope You Enjoy!

Weekly Tech News

U.K. bill would 'outlaw open Wi-Fi'

The U.K. government will not exempt universities, libraries, and small businesses providing open Wi-Fi services from its Digital Economy Bill copyright crackdown, according to official advice released earlier this week.

This would leave many organizations open to the same penalties for copyright infringement as individual subscribers, potentially including disconnection from the Internet, leading legal experts to say it will become impossible for small businesses and the like to offer Wi-Fi access.

Lilian Edwards, professor of Internet law at Sheffield University, told ZDNet UK on Thursday that the scenario described by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in an explanatory document would effectively "outlaw open Wi-Fi for small businesses" and would leave libraries and universities in an uncertain position....Read More...


Microsoft takes off gloves against Google

Microsoft left little doubt Friday that it was one of the companies leading the charge against Google worldwide.
 

In a blog post entitled "Competition Authorities and Search," Microsoft Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Dave Heiner said part of the motivation for Microsoft and Yahoo's search deal was "we are concerned...Read More...


Tools for Putting Web Apps to the Cross-Browser Test

Web-based applications and cloud computing have presented new challenges for software developers. Most software makers are by no means tone-deaf to user concerns about security and usability issues, but even those software writers who are receptive to these worries must contend with hard-to-plug holes that can open up in cross-platform programs such as Web browsers.

For Web app developers, the problems occur on...Read More...


New glasses-free 3D game for Nintendo DSi

Nintendo has released a new 3D game for the DSi in Japan which uses the devices in-built cameras to track the position of your eyes in relation to the two screens, and then delivers a 3D game world in line with the position of your head.

It sounds a little bit...Read More...


Sony: Don't hold your breath for PS4

The chances of seeing a PlayStation 4 underneath your television any time soon are receding, with the CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America insisting that we are in the 'first 25 to 30 per cent' of the current generation.

With the battle against ...Read More...


The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work

Much virtual ink has been spilled over Ubisoft's new, harsh DRM system for Assassin's Creed 2. You must have a constant internet connection, and, if your connection breaks, the game exits. While this has angered many (and justifiably so), most writers on the topic have made an error. They think that...Read More


Europe 'will not accept' three strikes in Acta treaty

The European Commission has pledged to make sure the Acta global treaty will not force countries to disconnect people for unlawfully downloading copyrighted music, movies and other material.

The assurance from the office of the trade commissioner, Karel De Gucht (pictured), is the strongest statement on Acta (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) to emerge from the new Commission since it took office earlier in February.

"We are not supporting...Read More...


Government departments allowed to use Firefox

The government has said its departments are free to consider any browser, and should consider open-source software including Firefox.

According to a parliamentary written answer from Cabinet Office minister Angela Smith, there is no rule that says government departments must use Microsoft's Internet Explorer, even though it is the browser most widely used within Whitehall.

When asked by Francis Maude MP what the government's policy on the installation of different web browsers is, Smith said: "Government policy regarding installation and use of web browsers is that all decisions must be in line with value-for-money requirements.

"In addition, the open source...Read More...


No Lie! Your Facebook Profile Is the Real You

On the Internet,” one dog tells another in a classic New Yorker cartoon, “nobody knows you’re a dog.”

The internet is notorious for its digital dens of deception. But on Facebook, what you see tends to be what you get — at least in one study of tailless, two-legged young adults.

College-age users of Facebook in the United States and a similar social networking site in Germany typically present...Read More...


Win A Free Ticket to Google IO 2010

Google’s premiere developer event is coming up in just a couple of months, and we’ve got two passes to give away.

Google I/O takes place on May 19 and 20 at Moscone Center in San Francisco. It’s the company’s largest developer event, with hundreds of sessions and demos of all the latest Google tech. Plus, there are the big keynotes like the launch of Wave, the first major public demo of Android and the HTML5 coming-out party where everyone in the room got a free Android phone....Read More...

Video of The Week

Note: This video is NSFW (not suitable for work) because of coarse language:

Well, Thats it for this week, hope you all enjoyed this week top news stories!

-Stephen

514

Living Room / Right, time to work on...o_0 a shiny penny, I WANT IT!

« on: February 21, 2010, 11:42 AM »

Right, the reason behind this post is the fact I am completely fed up of going to edit a document, or work on a piece of software and then getting distracted and either don't do it, or do something less productive.

I have been working on a novel for about 5 years, and i currently only have 72 book size pages (appx 30 A4) and for the past 4 month I have had the WORST writers block ever.

Does anybody else have times like this?  If so, how do you work around it?

Love to hear your ideas of how to get motivated into working on ONE project at once, rather than 875239 different things!

515

Living Room / Stephen's Weekly Tech News - Edition 2

« on: February 20, 2010, 06:35 PM »

Hey Guys, here is your weekly dose of Tech News!

Hope You Enjoy!

Weekly Tech News

Chinese schools deny links to Google attacks

Two days after a New York Times report linked two Chinese schools to hack attacks on Google and other Silicon Valley companies, both schools are denying those claims.

Security experts traced the attacks to computers at Shanghai Jiaotong University and Lanxiang Vocational School, The New York Times reported Thursday. But on Saturday...Read More...


Contest uses art to bring scientific concepts to life

Sometimes the grand ideas behind science's most important and intriguing concepts are so abstract they can be difficult to understand. One of the main goals of the International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge, sponsored by the journal Science and the National Science Foundation, is to help bring these scientific concepts to life through stunning visualizations.

The photographs, illustrations, video, and...Read More...


Google (finally) nabs On2 video codecs

Google has completed its acquisition of video compression outfit On2 Technologies. On Friday, according to brief statements from the two companies, On2 shareholders voted to approve a deal valued at approximately $124.6 million.

That's roughly $18 million more than the...Read More...


Open source - the once and future dream

For some, Oracle's $5.6bn purchase of Sun Microsystems was good news for open source. After all, a mega tech vendor has acquired a hugely popular open-source database product and project: MySQL.

But at the same time, as the European Union's anti-trust probe wore on, costing Oracle's chief executive $100m a month, and...Read More...


Opera cuts cord on first open-source baby

Opera has freed its first open source project, moving code for its Dragonfly debug tool onto the popular BitBucket hosting service.

Dragonfly - a website debug tool similar to Mozilla's Firebug - was always intended as an open source project. From its inception in 2008, it carried an open source BSD license. But until this month, the code...Read More...


Microsoft finally debuts Euro-choose-a-browser screen

Microsoft has unveiled its EU-mandated Web browser choice screen, and will start rolling it out next week.

Redmond's deputy general counsel Dave Heiner warned Explorer users "what to expect", in a not at all grudging blog posting.

He said...Read More


Toshiba outs new super-charged battery tech

Toshiba revealed a number of battery innovations at its press conference in London this week, with both SCiB and methanol fuel cell chargers getting their first airing in the UK.

First up was the company's fuel cell charger. Looking a bit like a DAB radio, the charger is...Read More...


The Blazing Backlash Against Buzz

Google would like you to know that it's very, very sorry that its new Buzz social network treated your social life like Procter & Gamble treats bunny rabbits. It's all a big misunderstanding. And by the way -- no one was actually harmed, no personal data was leaked, and you're the one who's confused, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said at the World Mobile Congress this week.

The big complaint about Buzz -- which started making headlines a day or so after Google rolled it out last week -- was that it could...Read More...


Word 2011's Ribbon Will Tie Mac Users in Knots

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was under no obligation to build a ribbon component, similar to the one premiered in Office for Windows, for the Mac. That's especially true given the fact that the menu bar is such a prominent element of the Mac user experience. Ever since System 7, the menu bar -- which remains fixed to the top of the screen -- indicates which application is active. In Windows, applications have their own menu bars, if they have...Read More...


Nanotech 'Trojan Horse' Sneaks Drugs Into Cancer Cells

Good things come in small packages, as the saying goes, and nowhere is that more true than in nanotechnology.

Research in the field has recently led to several new strategies for employing nanotechnology in the fight against cancer, and -- so far, at least -- the results are promising.

'Like a Trojan Horse'

One of the hardest parts of fighting cancer is...Read More...

Video of The Week

Well, Thats it for this week, hope you all enjoyed this week top news stories!

-Stephen

516

Living Room / Facebook Users Beware.

« on: February 17, 2010, 04:38 PM »

As Facebook scams are seemingly becoming more and more advanced, and offer new ways to fool users into joining their groups/pages in order to receive something cool, the newest one to hit Facebook is: [scam url removed by app103]

This page asks you to invite all your friends, then visit their website (where you are prompted to do things such as surveys and such).

Due to me not knowing the full extent of what they ask for, I refused to go any further into this, but I can guarantee you that these pages are FAKE and quite possibly will gain access to your accounts by means of falsifying information.



Facebook Denies Plans to Charge Users:
http://www.telegraph...-charging-plans.html



Facebook really need to get their act together and inform people of these groups, and maybe even start manually activating groups and fan pages, in order to stop these idiots from scamming people.

It's getting beyond the joke now, and for a company who make soo much money, they seem to be against actually doing anything to help their members!

517

Living Room / DC Game :: Wordsearch

« on: February 16, 2010, 07:28 PM »

http://www.fyrebug.c...me.php?gameid=230593



Created @ Fyrebug

518

Site/Forum Features / Topic Subscription.

« on: February 14, 2010, 11:06 PM »

This is a request for a feature I like to have on my most used forums.

Basically, on any topic, you should be able to choose whether to subscribe to the post and receive e-mails when any new replies have been posted, including the reply itself.

If this is possible it would be a great addition as when I'm out of the house, I check my e-mail using my mobile phone, and would love to see the updates in there.

Failing this, or in addition to, if it is even possible on SMF, maybe we could have SMS subscription, where updates are sent via SMS (including Private messages).  Very similar to what they have on Facebook and Twitter, and would also include a reply option (simply reply to the SMS with what you want to post and it automatically posts for you).

I don't know if anybody else would like these features but it would certainly be a useful addition to me at any rate.

 

519

Living Room / Stephens Weekly Tech News: Feb 14, 2010

« on: February 14, 2010, 01:04 PM »

Seeing as Ehtyar is taking a sabbatical from providing you with your Weekly Tech News, I will be providing you with some interesting stories and news topics until he can return.  

Weekly Tech News

Microsoft plans antipiracy update for Windows 7

Microsoft said on Thursday that it is planning an update to Windows 7 that will close a number of loopholes that counterfeiters had used to thwart the operating system's built-in antipiracy measures.

The Windows Activation Technologies Update for Windows 7, which will be released later this month, closes more than 70 "activation hacks," according to Joe Williams, general manager of Microsoft's Genuine Windows unit, responsible for anti-counterfeiting measures. The update will also...Read More...

Microsoft and Apple sued for patent infringement

Apple and Microsoft are being sued for patent infringement, according to a report on AppleInsider on Thursday.

The patent in question, entitled "Apparatus, method and a computer readable medium for generating media packets," was awarded to Emblaze, who filed for the patent in 2002.

The patent describes...Read More...


Google Buzz leaves privacy concerns ringing in ears

What’s that really annoying humming sound bothering your lugholes? Oh yes, Google Buzz. Bah.

And so it has come to pass - Mountain View’s sinister personal data grab has finally crept into the most sacred of all online communication tools. Gmail now has the ability to do social networking.

Google wants to out-Facebook Facebook, out-Twitter Twitter and out-Internet Explorer Internet Explorer and so and so and so, infinitum. But the...Read More...

Discuss in our forums...


Opera beta burns Chrome for top spot

Opera unleashed a beta version of its browser this morning, and 10.5 claims the lead over Google Chrome and Apple's Safari in the Javascript stakes. The speed improvement is down to a new Carakan ECMAScript engine.

The Rolls Royce of browsers has long been...Read More...

Discuss on our active forums...


Why every tech firm needs a tyrant at the top

Now the iPad hype/excitement [delete as applicable] has calmed down, it's a good time to look at Microsoft.

It's been pushing tablets for nearly a decade. What went wrong? How could a company with so many brilliant people be upstaged yet again?...Read More...

Discuss on our active forums...


7 of the best anti-virus apps for Linux

Pretty much every Linux user thinks they're immune to viruses, but they're wrong. Recently, malware was found hidden inside an innocuous looking Gnome theme from a reputable site.

Users who installed the theme also got...Read More


Toshiba outs new super-charged battery tech

Toshiba revealed a number of battery innovations at its press conference in London this week, with both SCiB and methanol fuel cell chargers getting their first airing in the UK.

First up was the company's fuel cell charger. Looking a bit like a DAB radio, the charger is...Read More...


Chip and PIN is broken, say researchers

Chip-and-PIN readers can be tricked into accepting transactions without a valid personal identification number, opening the door to fraud, researchers have found.

Researchers at Cambridge University have found a fundamental flaw in the EMV — Europay, MasterCard, Visa — protocol that underlies chip-and-PIN validation for debit and credit cards.

As a consequence...Read More...


Tailoring networking to the cloud

Ten-gigabit Ethernet network switch vendor Arista Networks has been something of an industry poster child since its inception five years ago. It took its time producing its first products, but is now expanding into the UK...Read More...


IBM announces 14 petabyte NAS array

IBM this week announced a network-attached storage array, aimed at medium and large enterprises, that is capable of scaling to more than 14 petabytes under a single name space.

The Scale Out Network Attached Storage (Sonas), announced on Tuesday, is a rack-sized array based on the company's General Parallel File System (GPFS), originally developed for supercomputers. While GPFS has been available for about 10 years, this is the first time it has...Read More...

Video of The Week

Well, Thats it for this week, hope you all enjoyed this week top news stories!

-Stephen

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Living Room / You'Dont'Tube In Aussy

« on: February 13, 2010, 05:06 PM »

Well, it seems that hackers from around the globe have got a little bit annoyed with the Australian government, and it's decision to filter out web content, including, but not limited to, Youtube Video's, by means of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)

Obviously, here at DC, we do not condone these type of attacks but you cannot help but feel bad for the people of countries like Australia, who's government seem to want to halt freedom of information and speech by simply dis-allowing their users from viewing such info.

I dunno about anybody else, but I feel that certain governments are starting to follow Kim Jong-il's well known way of thinking "If I don't like it, they will never see it"

IMO freedom of speech and information should be now, and always, allowed on the Internet, because it is a free-nation, not governed by any specific person, group, or country (no matter how much some people claim they do).

**edit**

Whoops, forgot to put a source link on haha:

here you go: http://news.bbc.co.u...chnology/8513073.stm

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Living Room / II Mozilla 27:14-22

« on: February 11, 2010, 05:41 PM »

Just came across this rather amusing little page:

http://www.shipbrook...om/jeff/mozilla.html

It should certainly be of interest to any lovers of Mozilla

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Found Deals and Discounts / 10% off ALL Web Branding, Logos, Websites and much more...

« on: February 09, 2010, 01:54 PM »

Get 10% off all services provided by www.moojuicedesigns.com

Please reply to this post or PM me on the forum to receive your unique discount code.

Thanks

**Please Note**

I have no affiliation with this company, other than knowing the owner.  I receive no commission, compensation, or royalties for providing you with these codes.

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Living Room / VALENTINES CODY: THE GAME!

« on: February 08, 2010, 08:31 PM »

I apologize for the bad quality image of cody, but this was a very quick build to test if it worked...

Anyhow, the link is below...hope you enjoy

Play Valentines Day Cody, Now!

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Living Room / How a computer works: The Router

« on: February 08, 2010, 04:55 PM »

We're all used to seeing the various parts of the Internet that come into our homes and offices -- the Web pages, e-mail messages and downloaded files that make the Internet a dynamic and valuable medium. But none of these parts would ever make it to your computer without a piece of the Internet that you've probably never seen. In fact, most people have never stood "face to machine" with the technology most responsible for allowing the Internet to exist at all: the router...

Click here to read the full article on the source website...

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Living Room / How a computer works: The DVD Burner

« on: February 08, 2010, 04:53 PM »

To transfer data onto a blank DVD media in a way that is readable by the DVD player, the burner must record a digital pattern of reflective and non-reflective areas. To do this, a moving write laser has to alter the surface of the disc. Just like the read laser of a DVD player, the write laser follows the same spiral path. Pre-pressed grooves guide the laser along the outwardly path starting at the center of the disc. Even if it seems complicated, it is quite simple how the burner writes data to a blank disc. As the disc spins, a mechanism calibrates the rate of...

Click here to read the rest of this article on the source website...