The Mister Purple writes "There is a small initiative underway to combat Islamic militant recruiting on the Internet... by trolling them. Quoting the article: 'The program, called Viral Peace, seeks to occupy the virtual space that extremists fill, one thread or Twitter exchange at a time. Shahed Amanullah, a senior technology adviser to the State Department and Viral Peace's creator, tells Danger Room he wants to use "logic, humor, satire, [and] religious arguments, not just to confront [extremists], but to undermine and demoralize them." Think of it as strategic trolling, in pursuit of geopolitical pwnage.' So, does this mean that I'm promoting peace when I post YouTube comments?"
Several readers sent word that Microsoft has selected a release date for Windows 8: October 26th. Steven Sinofsky made the announcement today at the company's annual sales meeting. The new version of the operating system will be sent to manufacturers next month, giving them plenty of time to prepare for general availability.
benfrog writes "Facebook has lost what (by the standards of their userbase) is a modest number of users over the last six months, which is perhaps one of the causes of a fall in their stock price. In the meantime, a study shows that Google+ users are more satisfied with the site than Facebook users, who are (understandably) upset about the number of recent UI changes, the amount of advertising, and other elements, according to a statement accompanying the study. Figures also show dramatic growth in Google+ usage."
Nerval's Lobster writes "In keeping with Microsoft's 'all-in' strategy with regard to the cloud, Office 2013 incorporates a good deal of cloud functionality: SkyDrive is now the default storage selection for documents, for example, and users' work is synced between devices connected to the Web. In conjunction with that, Microsoft is now offering a 'Cloud App Model' that incorporates Web standards, meant for developers interested in building apps that bring functionality into Office and SharePoint. The toolset for building within this 'Cloud App Model' is codenamed 'Napa.' Among the potential uses: developers can build mail apps for Office, which add content and functionality to Outlook items based on activation rules, content apps for Excel, which add content and functionality to Excel documents, and task pane apps for Office, which add functionality to Excel and Word documents in a task pane adjacent to the document."
hal9000(jr) writes "While IPv6 day was a successful marketing campaign, is anyone really moving to IPv6? On World Launch Day, Arbor Networks noted a peak of only .2% of IPv6 network traffic. It appears that IPv4 addresses are still valuable and are driving hosting acquisitions. Windows 8 will actually prefer IPv6 over IPv4. If you want IPv6, here's what to do about it."
microcars writes "A judge in the U.K. has ordered Apple to post a notice on its website and in British newspapers alerting people to a ruling that Samsung Electronics Co. didn't copy designs for the iPad. This is the same Judge who ruled earlier that Samsung's Galaxy Tab was not as cool as Apple's iPad."
ananyo writes "The Norfolk Constabulary has closed its investigation into the November 2009 release of private emails between researchers at the Climatic Research Centre at the University of East Anglia in Norwich after failing to identify those responsible. Despite not being able to prosecute any offenders, the police have confirmed that the data breach 'was the result of a sophisticated and carefully orchestrated attack on the CRU's data files, carried out remotely via the internet.' The investigation has also cleared anyone working at or associated with UEA from involvement in the crime. The hacking resulted in the release of more than 1,000 emails and shook the public's trust in climate science, though independent investigations after the breach cleared the scientists of wrongdoing."
An anonymous reader writes "TechCrunch reports that Dell will be officially re-entering the Linux laptop market. Beginning this fall, it will sell a 'developer edition' of one of its Ultrabooks that comes pre-loaded with Ubuntu 12.04. Dell first started offering computers with Linux installed in 2007, but they dropped the products in 2010. This spring, a skunkworks effort called Project Sputnik was announced, and now, after the completion of a short beta test, the Ubuntu laptops have been given a green light for commercial sale. Canonical has been working alongside Dell to help make this happen."
Mike Mearls is the Senior Manager for the Dungeons and Dragons Design Team. He's been with D&D publishers Wizards of the Coast (a subsidiary of Hasbro) since 2005, Before that he was a free-lance game writer and designer. In this conversation with Slashdot editor Rob "samzenpus" Rozeboom, he talks about changes in the latest version of D&D and how the company interacts with players. (We'll have some more chat with Mike next week, different wizard time, same wizard channel, so stay tuned.)
angry tapir writes with news on Android getting support for a third architecture. From the article: "ARM rival MIPS is continuing its push to make a mark in low-cost tablets and quickly trying to bring Android 4.1 (Jellybean) to its processors. 'We are working aggressively on bringing Jelly Bean to MIPS, and expect that it will be available to our licensees very soon,' said Jen Bernier-Santarini, director of corporation communications at MIPS, in an email. Tablets with MIPS processors are largely low-cost and have found buyers mostly in developing countries. MIPS last week said a new tablet called Miumiu W1 from Chinese company Ramos would become available in a few months in India, Latin America and Europe. The tablet has a 7-inch screen, a MIPS processor running at 1GHz, front camera and a microSD slot for expandable storage."
VMware has named Pat Gelsinger as its new CEO, moving the industry veteran from parent company EMC, where he served as president and chief operating officer, Wired Enterprise reported late on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, the news leaked out about the company ?being "on the verge of a major shakeup that will see the ...
Whether you have a habit of arriving awkwardly early or annoyingly late for meetings, an app called Twist is here to help. The new location-based app launched on Wednesday is like a more useful Find My Friends that notifies your family, friends or colleagues when you're going to arrive at a specific location.
Microsoft announced a firm ship date for its upcoming operating system on Wednesday.
The Joker said it best in ).
It?s been almost two months since SpaceX?s Dragon spacecraft completed its historic flight to the International Space Station. Like any successful team after a victory, the company has released a highlight video for fans and supporters.
Given the success of the adult-orientated cognition-testing will be released in Japan next week, and Nintendo has released a playable demo of the game's most intimidating play mode: "Demon Math."
When Amanita Design released Botanicula earlier this year, fans knew the game was going to be good. The indie game maker had a track record; in 2009 they released a point and click puzzle game called Machinarium that won them heaps of awards and a dedicated fan base. Botanicula?s early art was promising -- a cross between a avant guarde kids book and indie band cover art -- but what ultimately pushed it over the edge were its noises, created by the Czech band DVA.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and defense contractor Raytheon want to turn regular cargo ships into high-tech humanitarian aid platforms equipped with propeller-driven paraglider drones, easily mountable robotic cranes and unmanned amphibious cargo boats.
The New Zealand judge overseeing the extradition proceedings of accused file-sharing kingpin and Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is recusing himself from the case after remarking that the United States was "the enemy."
People are already begging Yahoo's new CEO Marissa Mayer to make Flickr awesome again. The only way to do that is to fix its engagement problem.
A joint project between NASA's Kennedy Space Center and the Canadian Space Agency has yielded a lunar rover called Resolve which will search for water sources on the Moon.
What if you could turn Instagram filters into lenses for your DSLR?? , a Portland, Oregon, startup that's bent on getting customers more engaged in the art of photography, has done exactly that.
We give you the inside story of Miguel Lopez -- a man who went by the Digg handle "mklopez" and went on to become one of the social news aggregator's most influential power users. What was his method? Why did he do it? And was he ever paid for a Digg? Wired tells all.
Hours after the Syrian regime suffered its greatest setback in the year-long civil war, the U.S. and U.K. defense chiefs feared that dictator Bashar Assad might use his stockpile of chemical weapons -- the results of what may be the largest active chemical program on the planet. But because of the structure of Assad's extensive chemical weapons effort, stopping the Syria from using his weapons may not be possible, even if the U.S. military suddenly decided to openly intervene.
Winning, for Microsoft, won?t be about beating Amazon or VMware in the specific territories of public cloud computing. No, winning for Microsoft is remaining present in many positions, exerting influence and working on a much, much bigger picture, writes Alexander Haislip.
Google is offering YouTube users a way to blur the faces in videos, calling it a way to protect dissidents and kids.
Survivors of three Americans killed by targeted drone attacks in Yemen last year sued top-ranking members of the United States, alleging Wednesday they illegally killed the three, one 16 years old, in violation of international human rights law and the U.S. Constitution.
Skyhook, a company that provides location positioning technology to devices and software, has launched a power-management solution for one of the most power-hungry category of apps: the ones that use constant background location tracking.
Nunzio Gambale and David Small started out in the mid-1990s, trying to figure out a way to give ferries a way to automatically trigger audio files during Sydney Harbor tours. Now, 17 years later, they have built up a 34-person company called Locata that can deliver more accurate positioning data than the global positioning system (GPS) -- at least over small swaths of land.
Mention Kickstarter these days and blockbuster campaigns come to mind. But for all the success stories on Kickstarter, there are many, many failures. So what's the secret to ending a campaign with tall boys rather than tears?
The British government appoints a Royal Commission on Noxious Vapours to look into the growing problem of industrial air pollution. Its report two years later would bring better regulation but warn about impeding economic growth.
When Catherine Chalmers looks at leaf cutter ants, she sees Facebook; when she sees cockroaches, she sees suburban families. Her science-inspired art can be beautiful and disgusting at the same time, and she hopes it makes viewers question how we think of other animals.
Most of us think of the future of eco-friendly cars in miles per gallon (or miles per kilowatt-hour). But a design team from Britain?s looked at the carbon consequences of the shipping required to move tons of steel and batteries from the factory to the garage. Their unnamed but fully functional concept is made of plywood, cardboard, and a little bit of metal. The whole thing can fold into a flat, light, and stackable package.
Fantasy author Neil Gaiman made headlines around the world last week when he announced a return to the beloved series for the comic's 25th anniversary. It will be the first new Sandman story in a decade, and nobody was more excited by the news than Wired. We caught up with Gaiman the day after the announcement at a gallery in the Mission, where his wife, the powerhouse musician and performance artist Amanda Palmer, was preparing to take the stage for a standing-room-only concert appearance.
Despite the interconnectedness of the global economy, the economics of bringing skilled foreign workers to the United States remains very much local.
This week on , mean McWords and folks who eat fabric.
Autodes, the company that sells professional enterprise design software to?architects, just paid $60 million to acquire Socialcam, a social video-sharing app that has quickly amassed more than 50 million users?on Facebook by making it easy?to watch?shaky videos shared by athletes. Wait, what? This unlikely union has confounded the design and tech communities.
is a gritty, unflinching portrait of hard men in a hard place at a moment in history that most Americans would probably prefer to forget.
When isn't the first movie to suffer from terrible timing. Here are some of the most cringe-worthy examples.
Inside the State Department, a Silicon Valley veteran has quietly launched an improbable new initiative to annoy, frustrate and humiliate denizens of online extremist forums. The idea is nothing less than to teach Muslims around the world how to become effective trolls. It's hardly a substitute for drone strikes and commando raids, but as terrorist recruitment has moved online, it might prevent al-Qaida from attracting new terrorists. The only thing missing is a strategy.