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Comments: 21 +-   Microsoft Issues Takedown Notices Over COFEE on Thursday November 26, @10:27AM

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday November 26, @10:27AM
from the horses-and-barn-doors dept.
microsoft
Eugen tips news that Microsoft has sent DMCA takedown notices to several websites to stop them from offering the Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) tool for download after it was leaked earlier this month. One of the sites, Cryptome.org, has posted their correspondence with Microsoft over the software. "... Microsoft contacted Network Solutions, which hosts Cryptome, and since John Young, the owner of the website, wasn't too keen on losing his whole website for the sake of a single 15MB file, he removed the download link and sent Network Solutions a notice of compliance."
Read More... 21 comments story

Comments: 73 +-   Italian Prosecutors Seek Prison Sentences For Google Execs on Thursday November 26, @09:39AM

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday November 26, @09:39AM
from the badda-boom-badda-...-bing? dept.
google
angry tapir writes "Milan prosecutors have sought prison sentences ranging from six months to one year for four Google executives accused of violating Italy's privacy laws over the posting of a video showing the bullying of a handicapped teenage boy. The prosecutor's request was backed up by a request by lawyers representing the Milan city council for €300,000 (US$452,000) in moral and material damages. The case concerns the posting on Google Video of a three-minute mobile-phone video showing a handicapped boy being tormented by his classmates in a Turin school."
Read More... 73 comments story

Comments: 45 +-   Tag Images With Your Mind on Thursday November 26, @08:50AM

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 26, @08:50AM
from the typing-is-hard dept.
microsoft
blee37 writes "Researchers at Microsoft have invented a system for tagging images by reading brain scans from an electroencephalograph (EEG). Tagging images is an important task because many images on the web are unlabeled and have no semantic information. This new method allows an appropriate tag to be generated by an AI algorithm interpreting the EEG scan of a person's brain while they view an image. The person need only view the image for as little as 500 ms. Other current methods for generating tags include flat out paying people to do it manually, putting the task on Amazon Mechanical Turk, or using Google Image Labeler."
Read More... 45 comments story

Comments: 103 +-   CIA Manual Thought Lost In 1973 Available On Amazon on Thursday November 26, @07:57AM

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 26, @07:57AM
from the there-is-no-manual-nor-has-there-ever-been-a-manual dept.
usa
An anonymous reader writes "At the height of the Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency paid renowned magician John Mulholland $3,000 to write a manual on misdirection, concealment, and stagecraft. All known copies of the document were believed to be destroyed in 1973. Turns out one survived — and is now available on Amazon."
Read More... 103 comments story

Comments: 101 +-   Review Scores the "Least Important Factor" When Buying Games on Thursday November 26, @05:29AM

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday November 26, @05:29AM
from the arbitrary-numbers-are-arbitrary dept.
games
A recent report from a games industry analyst suggests that among a number of factors leading to the purchase of a video game — such as price, graphics and word of mouth — the game's aggregated review score is the least important measure. Analyst Doug Creutz said, "We believe that while Metacritic scores may be correlated to game quality and word of mouth, and thus somewhat predictive of title performance, they are unlikely in and of themselves to drive or undermine the success of a game. We note this, in part, because of persistent rumors that some game developers have been jawboning game reviewers into giving their games higher critical review scores. We believe the publishers are better served by spending their time on the development process than by 'grade-grubbing' after the fact."
Read More... 101 comments story

Comments: 496 +-   Google Apologizes For "Michelle Obama" Results on Thursday November 26, @04:00AM

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 26, @04:00AM
from the was-that-wrong? dept.
google
theodp writes "CNN reports that for most of the past week, when someone did a Google image search for 'Michelle Obama,' one of the first images that came up was a picture of the First Lady altered to resemble a monkey. After being hit with a firestorm of criticism over the episode, Google first banned the site that posted the photo, saying it could spread malware. Then, when the image appeared on another site, Google displayed the photo in its search results, but displayed an apologetic Google ad above it. On Wednesday morning, the racially offensive image appeared to have been removed from any Google Image searches for 'Michelle Obama.' Google officials could not immediately be reached for comment." Update — 15:38 GMT by SS: A reader pointed out that this article from the Guardian says the image was de-listed simply because it was removed from the blog where it was hosted rather than by any "deliberate" action from Google.
Read More... 496 comments story

Comments: 60 +-   The Psychology of Achievement In Playing Games on Thursday November 26, @03:07AM

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday November 26, @03:07AM
from the no-you-don't-get-points-for-reading-this dept.
games
A post on Pixel Poppers looks at the psychological underpinnings of the types of challenges offered by different game genres, and the effect those challenges have on determining which players find the games entertaining. Quoting: "To progress in an action game, the player has to improve, which is by no means guaranteed — but to progress in an RPG, the characters have to improve, which is inevitable. ... It turns out there are two different ways people respond to challenges. Some people see them as opportunities to perform — to demonstrate their talent or intellect. Others see them as opportunities to master — to improve their skill or knowledge. Say you take a person with a performance orientation ('Paul') and a person with a mastery orientation ('Matt'). Give them each an easy puzzle, and they will both do well. Paul will complete it quickly and smile proudly at how well he performed. Matt will complete it quickly and be satisfied that he has mastered the skill involved. Now give them each a difficult puzzle. Paul will jump in gamely, but it will soon become clear he cannot overcome it as impressively as he did the last one. The opportunity to show off has disappeared, and Paul will lose interest and give up. Matt, on the other hand, when stymied, will push harder. His early failure means there's still something to be learned here, and he will persevere until he does so and solves the puzzle."
Read More... 60 comments story

Comments: 127 +-   Ants That Can Count on Thursday November 26, @01:52AM

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 26, @01:52AM
from the ants-plus-math-equals-doom dept.
science
thisIsOdd writes "NPR had a recent report about scientists at the University of Ulm who suggest that ants in desert environments count to help them get to and from their homes. Because the desert's windiness and sandiness is not conducive the 'smell-trail' method, where ants squeeze certain glands that leave a chemical trail, scientists were puzzled by the fact that these desert ants were able to leave and successfully return to their nest. The theory is called the 'pedometer theory,' and the experiment used to test it involves manipulating the leg length of some of these ants. Ants with longer legs would pass the nest on the way home, and ones with shorter legs came up... well... short."
Read More... 127 comments story

Comments: 51 +-   Tokyo Students Design a New Robotic Muscle Suit on Wednesday November 25, @10:42PM

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday November 25, @10:42PM
from the we-can-make-it-better dept.
hardware
angry tapir writes "Students at Tokyo's University of Science have developed a new version of their muscle suit, a wearable robotic suit that assists the muscles when carrying out strenuous tasks. The original version of the suit, which has been in production for several years, provides assistance to the arms and back but the new version provides assistance to the back only. That means it is lighter and more compact than the original model."
Read More... 51 comments story

Comments: 96 +-   Facebook Stock Going Public? on Wednesday November 25, @08:33PM

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday November 25, @08:33PM
from the planting-stock-in-moneyville dept.
zmaragdus writes "Facebook Inc. converted its existing stock holdings into different classes of stocks (Class A and Class B) designed to give certain shareholders more power than others. This has been typically done in an IPO of a company's stock to give important people (company founders, for instance) more clout in the actions of the company when stock is first offered to the public. While Facebook maintains that it does not plan to offer stock publicly in the near future, this restructuring is one of the critical steps in doing so."
Read More... 96 comments story
 
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