The Great Geek Manual News

Mozilla announced its intent to set a brand new Guinness World Record for the largest number of software downloads in 24 hours.

The record-setting attempt is planned for the launch day for Firefox 3, also known as Download Day. Mozilla is inviting its global community to spread the word and join the effort by pledging to download Firefox 3 and hosting regional download “fests.”

Since 2004, the Firefox community has grown to more than 175 million users. Firefox is available in more than 45 languages and used in more than 230 countries. Every day, the enthusiasm of the community is reflected in grassroots efforts happening all over the world as people share Firefox with their friends and families. Download Day continues this tradition by harnessing the energy of the Firefox community.

Firefox fans can support the mission to set a Guinness World Record on Download Day by pledging to download Firefox 3, hosting a Firefox 3 party, inviting friends to participate, or by placing Download Day buttons on their Web sites.

To take part in Download Day and help Mozilla set the Guinness World Record: Sign up to get Firefox 3 on Download Day at http://www.spreadfirefox.com/worldrecord

Read the Entire Story…
Source: Soft32

Researchers have designed a robot that uses a novel form of electrically activated adhesion to enable it to scale any kind of vertical surface. The robot can even climb surfaces that are dusty or wet, be they concrete, glass, or drywall.

“What’s really unique about this is the technology, not the robot,” says Harsha Prahlad, senior mechanical engineer at SRI International, a nonprofit research organization based in Menlo Park, CA. There are other robots that can climb walls. But these have usually involved using microscopic fibers designed to mimic the function of the hairlike setae that give geckos their remarkable sticking power, Prahlad says.

In contrast, SRI’s robot works by inducing electrostatic charges in the surface of a wall. The advantage here is that the adhesive climbing surfaces of the robot can be turned off, making movement much simpler, says Prahlad. It also makes the robot’s adhesive surfaces self-cleaning, he says, thereby avoiding any gradual buildup of dust and dirt that would ultimately reduce the adhesion.

Tests have shown that the robot is capable of generating 1.5 newtons of sticking force per centimeter square of contact with a wall. Presenting his results at this year’s International Conference on Robotics and Automation, in Pasadena, CA, Prahlad showed that the robot was able to scale walls while carrying weights of up to 75 pounds.

“It’s an interesting and robust approach,” says Metin Sitti, a mechanical engineer at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, who has been working on wall-climbing robots for some time. However, he says, the forces generated are just one-tenth as strong as is currently being seen when the gecko-inspired approach is used.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: Technology Review

I’m insufferably lucky: for the last few years I’ve made my living playing. First as a games journalist and now as a consultant, my work is - partially at least - a game.

Yesterday, alongside e-mails and reports and statistics, my work included playing five games - one old Dos (Disk operating system) game, one Wii, and three Flash games.

For now, I’m in a minority, but within a few years, many - if not all of us - will be able to say the same. Soon we’ll all be playing at work.

The first signs of the shift may come when you apply for a job. Already, the rising reputation of gaming has changed how people handle it on their CVs.

Once a taboo amongst all those impressively fraudulent hobbies listed at the bottom of the page (”Orienteering, wetlands conservation, daguerreotyping and blow-fish preparation” it says on mine) gaming now takes pride of place.

It’s becoming increasingly common for gamers to list things like running World Of Warcraft guilds in their applications, and increasingly common for employers to recognise the organisational, managerial and inter-personal skills such experience brings.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: The BBC

It has become apparent during the last few hours that Comcast, everyone’s favorite ISP (especially in the BitTorrent world) has been hacked. The message on the homepage read: “KRYOGENIKS EBK and DEFIANT RoXed COMCAST.”

When you’re as large as Comcast, you can’t please all of the people, all of the time. Although it has done so in other ways too, Comcast managed to annoy a large portion of its customer base with its throttling activities, not to mention its misleading statements and ’smokescreen’ attitude when it was discovered to be squirming away from the truth. Maybe it’s this that motivated a group of individuals to make the next move?

This morning many people will be celebrating as reports circulate that in the last few hours Comcast has been the subject of a hacking which defaced its homepage (mirror here).

Read the Entire Story…
Source: Torrent Freak

With tasks like e-mail and word processing now migrating from the PC to the Internet, analysts and industry players think the browser will soon become even more valuable and strategically important. “People in the industry foresee a time in which for many people, the only thing they’ll need on a computer is a browser,” said Mitch Kapor.

The browser, that porthole onto the broad horizon of the Web, is about to get some fancy new window dressing.

Next month, after three years of development and six months of public testing, Mozilla, the insurgent browser developer that rose from the ashes of Netscape, will release Firefox 3.0. It will feature a few tricks that could change the way people organize and find the sites they visit most frequently.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft Relevant Products/Services recently took the wraps off the first public test version of the latest edition of Internet Explorer, which is used by about 75 percent of all computer owners, according to Net Applications, a market share tracking firm. The finished version of Internet Explorer 8 could be released by the end of the year and is expected to have additional features.

Even Apple, which once politely kept its Safari browser within the confines of its own devices, is making a somewhat controversial push to get it onto the computers of people who use Windows PCs.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: News Factor

IN 2002, when Electronic Arts signed a multimillion-dollar agreement with McDonald’s to place virtual burgers in an online version of its popular Sims video game, the move drew protests from players who resented the commercial intrusion.

But the Sims, a virtual family designed by players, are only becoming more brand-conscious. Starting in June, people who play The Sims 2, the current version of the game, will be able to buy a “stuff pack” (on a disc or online) that lets them decorate their simulated families’ homes with Ikea furniture. Last year a similar deal was made with H&M, the Swedish clothing retailer, that lets players buy a disc full of H&M-branded clothing for their Sims avatars.

While most other “stuff packs” contain generic accouterments — one called “Glamour Life,” for instance, lets players pick from label-free furnishings and evening gowns — the Ikea pack will let players move items like the Ektorp sofa and the Leksvik coffee table into their families’ virtual homes.

Electronic Arts, the world’s largest video game company, said it made the deal with Ikea, the Swedish furniture manufacturer, in response to requests in online players’ forums for more modern, realistic furniture.

“Because we have such a direct relationship with our players, the players help shape the product strategy,” said Nancy Smith, president of the Sims label, which has sold more than 100 million copies.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: The New York Times

Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was born 100 years ago Wednesday in London.

While that historical footnote passed with hardly any mention in Silicon Valley, Fleming’s spy novels deserve a place on the shelf in the section titled “history of technology.” Fleming, who rose to the rank of commander in the British Admiralty during the World War II, introduced Bond in 1953 with the publication of Casino Royale. The subsequent Bond books and films brought to public notice everything from luminous watches to car phones and pagers–long before they became commonplace commodities in contemporary society.

We also can thank Fleming for the popular phrase, a “James Bond gadget.” For a look back, take a look at the list compiled on Wikipedia.

So let’s raise a glass–shaken, not stirred, of course–to Q and the rest of the team. Happy birthday, Mr. Fleming. the man whose imagination contributed mightily to popular thinking about all those cool high-tech toys.

Source: CNet

Verbatim has set everybody’s mind at rest, by confirming that should you ever find yourself in outer space with data to back up, its recordable CDs and DVDs are certified for the job.

The testing was carried out by a German university, which had to vet the media to ensure it would operate and survive in space, after it was selected to accompany Space Shuttle Mission 1J to the International Space Station at the end of May.

It’s a one-way trip for the discs which will be housed on the station and used as system backups should the on-board laptops need critical functions restoring.

Due to the potentially long stay of the discs on the space station, testing revolved around their claimed 100 years longevity, ensuring no chemicals dangerous to the delicate systems on the station would be released as the media decayed.

“The off-gassing test, as it is known, is an essential requirement to ensure that astronauts are not placed in danger through harmful substances in their air supply”, explains Florian Bittner, product assurance and safety officer at Astrium GmbH, the university which conducted the test.

Source: PC Pro

A company which hosts many BitTorrent trackers has been ordered by the CRIA to close at least four major sites. Moxie Colo was issued with cease and desist notices and ordered to hand over the owners data and site logs of What.cd, SumoTracker, BTMon and FullDls. They are told to simply close many other sites they host.

Those who believed that Canada would develop as one of the world’s BitTorrent safe-havens, are in for quite a surprise. Despite many people believing that torrent sites are operating legally in Canada, today popular Canadian BitTorrent host Moxie Colo was served with cease and desist orders, courtesy of the CRIA.

They specifically demand that the Moxie Colo stops hosting top ranked torrent sites What.cd, SumoTorrent, BTMon and FullDls. Generally, the CRIA is demanding that Moxie stop hosting all torrent sites.

TorrentFreak has been reporting recently on the plight of QuebecTorrent which is currently tied up in a legal battle against the music industry in Canada. Clearly that - and the running out of town of Demonoid - was just a run up to further action by an emboldened CRIA.

In files served on Moxie Communications Inc (the parent company of Moxie Colo), the CRIA is demanding that Moxie turn over the personal details of the torrent site administrators, presumably so they can go after them. The CRIA also want Moxie to turn over all relevant site logs, but it is at least unlikely that the Canadian police will be interested in most of the users.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: Torrent Freak

A team of researchers from Yale University is aiming to make the internet work more efficiently by improving cooperation between ISPs and peer-to-peer software providers..

Professors Avi Silberschatz and Y. Richard Yang, and Ph.D. candidate Haiyong Xie, at Yale’s Department of Computer Science are proposing an architecture called ‘provider portal for P2P applications’, or P4P.

The group aims to allow explicit and seamless communications between ISPs and P2P applications.

The P4P model can reduce the cost to ISPs and improve the performance of P2P applications, according to the academics.

Professor Silberschatz explained that current P2P information exchange schemes are “network-oblivious” and use intricate protocols for tapping the bandwidth of participating users to help move data. “The existing schemes are often inefficient and costly, like dialling long-distance to call your neighbour and both of you paying for the call,” he said.

Professor Yang added: “Right now the ISPs and P2P companies are dancing with the problem but stepping on each other’s toes.

“Our objective is to have an open architecture in which any ISP and any P2P provider can participate.”

Read the Entire Story…
Source: iT News

A hacker has used a loophole to collect more than $50,000 from Google Checkout and online brokerage firms, a few cents at a time. When opening an online brokering account it is common practice for companies such as E-trade and Schwab to send a tiny payment - ranging from only a few cents to a couple of dollars - to verify that the user has access to the bank account listed. Services such as Google Checkout and Paypal use a similar tactic to verify credit and debit cards linked to accounts.

According to court documents, Californian Michael Largent used an automated script to open 58,000 such accounts, collecting many thousands of these small payments into a few personal bank accounts.

Largent also performed the same trick with Google’s Checkout service, cashing more than $8,000 alone from the service.

He is currently free on bail pending a court judgement on charges of wire, bank and mail fraud for his antics with the online brokerage sites, although his similar approach to getting cash out of Google has not been pursued by police as of this time.

When his bank contacted him about the thousands of small payments, Largent explained that he had read the terms of service of the sites he was targeting, and believed he was doing nothing wrong, claiming that he needed the money to pay off debts.

However, Largent used false names, including cartoon characters, as well as false addresses and social security numbers, which opened him to conviction under laws on mail, bank and wire fraud.

Source: PC Pro

Samsung told the Samsung Mobile Solutions Forum in Taipei that it has developed the world’s fastest, 2.5-inch, 256GB solid-state drive. Samsung said the change is comparable to the evolution from the Sony Walkman to MP3 players. Samsung’s new SSD uses MLC technology to overcome storage-space problems. A 128GB SSD is also expected.

Samsung Electronics told customers attending this month’s Samsung Mobile Solutions Forum in Taipei that it has developed the world’s fastest, 2.5-inch, 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) for use in laptops and other consumer electronics gear.

Based on multi-level cell (MLC) technology with the ability to store more than a single bit of information per cell, the new SSD will effectively eliminate density as a barrier to SSD adoption in laptops and other consumer products, Samsung executives say.

“With development of the 256GB SSD, the notebook Relevant Products/Services PC is on the brink of a second stage of evolution,” said Samsung Semiconductor Vice President Jim Elliott. “This change is comparable to the evolution from the Sony Walkman to NAND memory-based MP3 players, representing an initial step in the shift to thinner, smaller SSD-based notebooks with significantly improved performance and more than ample storage Relevant Products/Services.”

Read the Entire Story…
Source: News Factor

Although “Viking” literally means “pirate,” recent research has indicated that the Vikings were also traders to the fishmongers of Europe. Stereotypically, these Norsemen are usually pictured wearing a horned helmet but in a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE this week, Jorgen Dissing and colleagues from the University of Copenhagen, investigated what went under the helmet; the scientists were able to extract authentic DNA from ancient Viking skeletons, avoiding many of the problems of contamination faced by past researchers.

Analysis of DNA from the remains of ancient humans provides valuable insights into such important questions as the origin of genetic diseases, migration patterns of our forefathers and tribal and family patterns.

Unfortunately, severe problems connected with the retrieval and analysis of DNA from ancient organisms (like the scarcity of intact molecules) are further aggravated in the case of ancient humans. This is because of the great risk of contamination with abundant DNA from modern humans. Humans, then, are involved at all steps, from excavation to laboratory analyses. This means that many previous results have subsequently been disputed as attributed to the presence of contaminant DNA, and some researchers even claim that it is impossible to obtain reliable results with ancient human DNA.

Using freshly sampled material from ten Viking skeletons from around AD 1,000, from a non-Christian burial site on the Danish island of Funen, Dissing and colleagues showed that it is indeed possible to retrieve authentic DNA from ancient humans.

Wearing protective suits, the researchers removed the teeth from the jaw at the moment the skeletons were unearthed when they had been untouched for 1,000 years. The subsequent laboratory procedures were also carefully controlled in order to avoid contamination.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: Phys Org

Microsoft Corp plans to give users of the next version of its Windows operating system touch screen controls as one option for controlling the software, its top executives said on Tuesday. Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Steve Ballmer showed off new Windows features based on software it calls “multi-touch” that will be part of Windows 7, the next version of Windows, which Ballmer said was due out in late 2009.

The ability to use touch to give users fingertip control of their screens could help revolutionize how computer desktops and mobile phones are controlled and would be an alternative to existing mice, keyboard and pen-based user controls.

During a joint interview that kicked off the Wall Street Journal’s three-day D: All Things Digital conference, an annual gathering of the computer industry elite taking place north of San Diego, Ballmer said touch screen controls was one example of how Microsoft would improve on existing Windows software.

Microsoft is seeking to one-up Apple Inc, which made touch-screen software central to the success of its iPhone mobile device, which combines computer, phone and Web features and has sold around 6 million units in its first 11 months.

After more than a decade of slow development, Gates said new ways of interacting with computers other than keyboards and mice have matured to the point where they are ready to go mainstream. “We are at an interesting juncture where almost all of the interaction is with the computer and mouse, today, and, over the years to come, the role of speech, vision, ink, all of those will become huge,” Gates said.

Read the Entire Story…
Source: Reuter