Sat 5 Jul 2008
Web application SimplyNoise provides a no-frills interface to configure relaxing white noise right in your browser. Just fire up the web site and adjust the sliding orb to the intensity of white…
Sat 5 Jul 2008
Just uploaded an updated version of the Better YouTube Firefox extension, which is now fully Firefox 3 compatible and, you know, actually works. Download it here.
Sat 5 Jul 2008
rfc1394 writes “While the regular price of an iPhone is $199 if you take a 2-year contract with AT&T, if you’re willing to pay a lot more you can get one without a contract. An article in InfoWorld mentions that ‘Freedom will come with a price — $599 for an 8GB device and $699 for a 16GB — but this will mark the first time consumers in the United States are able to buy an iPhone without being tied down to a two-year contract. The phone probably would still be locked for use only on AT&T’s network, said Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg. But buyers could choose a pay-as-you-go plan for voice service.’ The question still remains, does it make any sense to pay that much for a phone that is still locked to AT&T’s network even if you aren’t bound to a contract?”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Sat 5 Jul 2008
Earthweb passes along a ZDNet article which notes, “In partnership with indie security consultant Rich Mogull, Mozilla has launched a valuable Security Metrics Project that could help to — we can only hope — put an end to the silly notion that patch-counting helps to determine a product’s security posture. The idea is to develop a metrics model that goes beyond simple bug counts to accurately reflect the effectiveness of secure development efforts and the relative risk to users over time. Mogull has released a spreadsheet (.xls) with a preliminary version of the model and Mozilla’s Window Snyder is actively seeking feedback to make the project open and meaningful.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Sat 5 Jul 2008
Matt Lincoln Russell writes “Installing Ubuntu Netbook Remix on the OLPC XO is not for the faint of heart, but Drew Beckett has got the process down. This setup is pretty slow on the XO, but the good news is that Netbook Remix is a work in progress, and can be expected to get better.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Sat 5 Jul 2008
A battle between employees and their company over in-house day care may be representative of greater changes at Google.
Sat 5 Jul 2008
A private equity and pension fund consortium said it salvaged a record $52 billion deal for Bell Canada on Friday by postponing its closing date and canceling dividend payments.
Sat 5 Jul 2008
The move brings Google into clear compliance with a California law that requires many Web sites to have a link to their privacy policy on their home page.
Sat 5 Jul 2008
TORONTO — BCE Inc, Canada’s largest telecommunications company, said Friday it has agreed on terms of a $35 billion sale to a group led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in the biggest leveraged buyout ever. The deal is expected to be completed by mid-December.
Sat 5 Jul 2008
An anonymous reader brings us Computerworld’s interview with Don Woods, one of the creators of Compiler Language With No Pronounceable Acronym (INTERCAL). INTERCAL and its documentation were created in 1972 as a parody of that era’s languages and instruction manuals. Among other things, Woods had this to say: “We designed the language without too much trouble. Writing the manual took a while, especially for things like the circuit diagrams we included as nonsensical illustrations. The compiler itself actually wasn’t too much trouble, given that we weren’t at all concerned with optimising the performance of either the compiler or the compiled code. I admit I’m surprised at its longevity. Some of the jokes in the original work feel rather dated at this point. It helps that the language provides a place where people can discuss oddball features missing from other languages, such as the ‘COME FROM’ statement and operators that work in base 3.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.