Slashdot Mirror

msevior writes "Although Linus Torvalds and some Slashdot commentators may disagree, GNOME 3 has many admirers. GNOME 3 was awarded the Linux Journal Readers' Choice award for 2011." Though I'm one of the complainers, I hope to be converted with the help of Gnome Shell extensions.

New submitter sandeepabhat tips news that Android Market recently saw its 10 billionth app download, reaching the milestone less than a year after the App Store accomplished the same feat. New downloads through Android Market are proceeding at a rate of roughly 1 billion per month. Google has now created an infographic to break down the information further. Games outpace any other type of app, accounting for more than a quarter of all downloads. The top five countries in downloads-per-capita are South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the U.S., and Singapore.

New submitter harmic writes "The Australian Federal High Court has denied Apple's appeal against the earlier decision that overturned the ban on sales of the Galaxy Tab. The Samsung Android based tablets should be in the shops in a matter of days. Apple had attempted to appeal an earlier court ruling overturning the ban."

superglaze writes "The European Union is asking companies that sell surveillance and law enforcement tech to repressive regimes to stop doing so. The EU is not taking concrete action yet, but has warned that sanctions may be applicable. All this comes little more than a week after Wikileaks published the Spy Files, a name-and-shame list of the companies offering tools for mass surveillance and interception to despotic regimes, but also to Western governments."

MrSeb writes "IBM's Watson is made of many parts: speech recognition, natural language processing, machine learning, and data mining. All of these factors were perfectly combined to beat Ken Jennings in Jeopardy, and now each of these components are slowly finding their way into other applications. Health plan company WellPoint, for example, is using Watson to investigate patient records to improve diagnosis, and in a self-referential, possibly universe-destroying twist, IBM itself is using Watson to help sell Watson (and other IBM products) to other companies. Now, using Watson's data mining and natural language talents, IBM has created the Strategic IP Insight Platform, or SIIP, a tool that has already scanned millions of medical patents and journals for the sake of improving drug discovery — and in the future, it's easy to see how the same tool could be used to battle patent trolling, too."

MrSeb writes "IBM's Watson is made of many parts: speech recognition, natural language processing, machine learning, and data mining. All of these factors were perfectly combined to beat Ken Jennings in Jeopardy, and now each of these components are slowly finding their way into other applications. Health plan company WellPoint, for example, is using Watson to investigate patient records to improve diagnosis, and in a self-referential, possibly universe-destroying twist, IBM itself is using Watson to help sell Watson (and other IBM products) to other companies. Now, using Watson's data mining and natural language talents, IBM has created the Strategic IP Insight Platform, or SIIP, a tool that has already scanned millions of medical patents and journals for the sake of improving drug discovery — and in the future, it's easy to see how the same tool could be used to battle patent trolling, too."

Lauren Weinstein excerpts the most interesting part of a BBC story about the safety hazards associated with the Chevy Volt — specifically, the risk that its battery pack could catch fire after even a minor impact. While it might be unsurprising that GM was reluctant to shout out safety warnings that would dampen early sales of its much touted hybrid, according to the linked story the NHTSA was as well, and for the same reason: "Part of the reason for delaying the disclosure was the 'fragility of Volt sales' up until that point, according to Joan Claybrook, a former administrator at NHTSA."

With so much personal data being kept on the cloud, including government and health records or your source code, do you have any concerns about it falling into the wrong hands? Do you think the cloud's benefits are outweighed by continuing security issues?

First time accepted submitter BabaChazz writes "Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates says he is in discussions with China to jointly develop a new kind of nuclear reactor. During a talk at China's Ministry of Science & Technology Wednesday, the billionaire said: 'The idea is to be very low cost, very safe and generate very little waste.' Gates backs Washington-based TerraPower, which is developing a nuclear reactor that can run on depleted uranium."

First time accepted submitter BabaChazz writes "Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates says he is in discussions with China to jointly develop a new kind of nuclear reactor. During a talk at China's Ministry of Science & Technology Wednesday, the billionaire said: 'The idea is to be very low cost, very safe and generate very little waste.' Gates backs Washington-based TerraPower, which is developing a nuclear reactor that can run on depleted uranium."

bonch writes "Less than 12 hours after the U.S. launched a virtual embassy for Iran, the Iranian government blocked access to the website, directing visitors to a government page proclaiming the site illegal. The White House condemned the move, calling Iran's internet policies 'an electronic curtain of surveillance and censorship around its people.'"

eldavojohn writes "The first man-made craft to do so is now entering a 'cosmic purgatory' between solar systems and entering an interstellar space of the Milky Way Galaxy. With much anticipation, Voyager 1 is now 'in a stagnation region in the outermost layer of the bubble around our solar system. Voyager is showing that what is outside is pushing back.' After three decades the spacecraft is still operating and apparently has enough power and fuel to continue to do so until 2020. The first big piece of news? 'We've been using the flow of energetic charged particles at Voyager 1 as a kind of wind sock to estimate the solar wind velocity. We've found that the wind speeds are low in this region and gust erratically. For the first time, the wind even blows back at us. We are evidently traveling in completely new territory. Scientists had suggested previously that there might be a stagnation layer, but we weren't sure it existed until now.' This process could take months to years to completely leave the outer shell but already scientists are receiving valuable information."

eldavojohn writes "The first man-made craft to do so is now entering a 'cosmic purgatory' between solar systems and entering an interstellar space of the Milky Way Galaxy. With much anticipation, Voyager 1 is now 'in a stagnation region in the outermost layer of the bubble around our solar system. Voyager is showing that what is outside is pushing back.' After three decades the spacecraft is still operating and apparently has enough power and fuel to continue to do so until 2020. The first big piece of news? 'We've been using the flow of energetic charged particles at Voyager 1 as a kind of wind sock to estimate the solar wind velocity. We've found that the wind speeds are low in this region and gust erratically. For the first time, the wind even blows back at us. We are evidently traveling in completely new territory. Scientists had suggested previously that there might be a stagnation layer, but we weren't sure it existed until now.' This process could take months to years to completely leave the outer shell but already scientists are receiving valuable information."

An anonymous reader writes "Indian Communications and IT minister Kapil Sibal yesterday announced a proposal to have technology companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Twitter pre-screen user generated content so that community sentiments are not hurt. Social media platforms are being asked to censor whatever politicians deem objectionable and too offensive for the Internet. Sibal called a news conference when the story broke, and following it, Facebook responded to say that it can't help in the effort."

MrSeb writes with an excerpt from an Extreme Tech article on the Windows 8 release timeline: "...A Microsoft vice president announced that the Windows 8 beta would begin in late February 2012. The beta will be feature-complete and will allow developers to begin listing their apps in the Store. The timing of the beta is curious, and ultimately quite telling. ... The first public build of Windows 8 ... emerged in mid-September 2011; by the time the beta rolls around, it will have been ruminating for more than five months. If we follow the timeline forward — it took 10 months for Windows 7 to go from beta to public release — then it's possible that Windows 8 might arrive just in time for Black Friday 2012, or perhaps not in 2012 at all. Will its late arrival affect its chances of cutting out a swath of the tablet market from Apple and Android? Or will Windows 8 be different enough that it will do well, no matter when it arrives?" In related news, an anonymous reader notes that IDC predicts Windows 8 will be irrelevant to the traditional PC market.

First time accepted submitter Mastadex writes "RIM's brand new BlackBerry mobile OS, due in early 2012, was expected to be called BBX. But due to a recent court ruling against it, RIM has dropped BBX and opted simply for 'BlackBerry 10.' Software company Basis International said a U.S. federal court in Albuquerque has granted a temporary restraining order against RIM, barring it from using Basis's BBX trademark. The court decision bars RIM from using the trademark at its Asian DevCon conference on Wednesday and Thursday in Singapore."

First time accepted submitter Mastadex writes "RIM's brand new BlackBerry mobile OS, due in early 2012, was expected to be called BBX. But due to a recent court ruling against it, RIM has dropped BBX and opted simply for 'BlackBerry 10.' Software company Basis International said a U.S. federal court in Albuquerque has granted a temporary restraining order against RIM, barring it from using Basis's BBX trademark. The court decision bars RIM from using the trademark at its Asian DevCon conference on Wednesday and Thursday in Singapore."

ExE122 writes "Netflix CEO Reed Hastings makes several comments about mistakes that were made over the past year. Hastings claimed, 'We moved too fast with it', [trying to exit the DVD-by-mail business] and explains that he still thinks Internet video will dominate in the coming years. From the article: 'Hastings also faced tough questions about last month's double-bomb disclosure: Netflix now expects to lose money for all of 2012, and it is looking to raise cash in a secondary offering of its stock.'"

We're pleased to announce that changes are coming to the Ask Slashdot section. Ask Slashdot is a place to get your technical questions answered, show off your big brain by helping others, debate products and practices, and occasionally talk directly to companies about their offerings. Over the years, we've posted more than 7700 questions, on everything from workplace relations to home networking to evading censorship from unfriendly regimes. Starting tomorrow, you'll see that some Ask Slashdot questions have their own sponsors; the sponsors don't pick the questions, but experts from each sponsor will stick around for the discussion. Next up: we're making it easier for you to submit questions. Our goal is to make Ask Slashdot your "go-to" place for answers to your pressing nerd questions. So please post your questions, put on your answering hats, and come along for the ride.

We're pleased to announce that changes are coming to the Ask Slashdot section. Ask Slashdot is a place to get your technical questions answered, show off your big brain by helping others, debate products and practices, and occasionally talk directly to companies about their offerings. Over the years, we've posted more than 7700 questions, on everything from workplace relations to home networking to evading censorship from unfriendly regimes. Starting tomorrow, you'll see that some Ask Slashdot questions have their own sponsors; the sponsors don't pick the questions, but experts from each sponsor will stick around for the discussion. Next up: we're making it easier for you to submit questions. Our goal is to make Ask Slashdot your "go-to" place for answers to your pressing nerd questions. So please post your questions, put on your answering hats, and come along for the ride.

We're pleased to announce that changes are coming to the Ask Slashdot section. Ask Slashdot is a place to get your technical questions answered, show off your big brain by helping others, debate products and practices, and occasionally talk directly to companies about their offerings. Over the years, we've posted more than 7700 questions, on everything from workplace relations to home networking to evading censorship from unfriendly regimes. Starting tomorrow, you'll see that some Ask Slashdot questions have their own sponsors; the sponsors don't pick the questions, but experts from each sponsor will stick around for the discussion. Next up: we're making it easier for you to submit questions. Our goal is to make Ask Slashdot your "go-to" place for answers to your pressing nerd questions. So please post your questions, put on your answering hats, and come along for the ride.

An anonymous reader writes "From McGill's news site: 'Thousands of video game players have helped significantly advance our understanding of the genetic basis of diseases such as Alzheimer's, diabetes and cancer over the past year. They are the users of a web-based video game developed by Dr. Jérôme Waldispuhl of the McGill School of Computer Science and collaborator Mathieu Blanchette. Phylo is designed to allow casual game players to contribute to scientific research by arranging multiple sequences of coloured blocks that represent human DNA. By looking at the similarities and differences between these DNA sequences, scientists are able to gain new insight into a variety of genetically-based diseases.'" Hopefully Phylo will be as successful as Foldit.

New submitter iComp writes with this quote from El Reg: "The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has announced that it is back in business checking out the new [potentially] habitable exoplanets recently discovered by NASA's Kepler space telescope to see if they might be home to alien civilizations. The cash needed to restart SETI's efforts has come in part from the U.S. Air Force Space Command, who are interested in using the organization's detection instruments for 'space situational awareness'."

redletterdave writes "Consumer Reports' latest ratings survey of cell phone carriers revealed that Verizon Wireless scored the highest satisfaction score out of the four major U.S. service providers, earning particularly high grades for texting and data service. Verizon was followed closely by Sprint and T-Mobile USA, but all three companies earned scores lower overall than their figures from last year. AT&T was at the very bottom of the list for the second year in a row. While AT&T's satisfaction score in 2011 wasn't as bad as its score from 2010, the Dallas-based cell phone provider, which recently discontinued its bid to acquire its better rival T-Mobile, still ranked at the bottom of the pack. Last year, AT&T was the only carrier for the Apple iPhone, but still managed to receive the lowest scores."

Many scientists (mainly Japanese and Russian) have dreamed of cloning a mammoth over the years. When the mammoth genome was partially reconstructed in 2008, that dream seemed a bit closer. Besides the millions of dollars needed for such a project, the biggest hurdle was the lack of a good sample of mammoth DNA. That hurdle has now been cleared, thanks to the discovery of well-preserved bone marrow in a mammoth thigh bone. Russian scientist Semyon Grigoriev, acting director of the Sakha Republic's mammoth museum, and colleagues from Japan's Kinki University say that within 5 years they'll likely have a clone. From the article: "What's been missing is woolly mammoth nuclei with undamaged genes. Scientists have been on a Holy Grail-type search for such pristine nuclei since the late 1990s. Now it sounds like the missing genes may have been found."

Many scientists (mainly Japanese and Russian) have dreamed of cloning a mammoth over the years. When the mammoth genome was partially reconstructed in 2008, that dream seemed a bit closer. Besides the millions of dollars needed for such a project, the biggest hurdle was the lack of a good sample of mammoth DNA. That hurdle has now been cleared, thanks to the discovery of well-preserved bone marrow in a mammoth thigh bone. Russian scientist Semyon Grigoriev, acting director of the Sakha Republic's mammoth museum, and colleagues from Japan's Kinki University say that within 5 years they'll likely have a clone. From the article: "What's been missing is woolly mammoth nuclei with undamaged genes. Scientists have been on a Holy Grail-type search for such pristine nuclei since the late 1990s. Now it sounds like the missing genes may have been found."

First time accepted submitter Cmdrm writes with an article about Kaspersky Lab quitting the BSA over their (now lukewarm) support of SOPA. From the press release: "Kaspersky Lab would like to clarify that the company did not participate in the elaboration or discussion of the SOPA initiative and does not support it. Moreover, the company believes that the SOPA initiative might actually be counter-productive for the public interest, and decided to discontinue its membership in the BSA as of January 1, 2012.'"

First time accepted submitter Cmdrm writes with an article about Kaspersky Lab quitting the BSA over their (now lukewarm) support of SOPA. From the press release: "Kaspersky Lab would like to clarify that the company did not participate in the elaboration or discussion of the SOPA initiative and does not support it. Moreover, the company believes that the SOPA initiative might actually be counter-productive for the public interest, and decided to discontinue its membership in the BSA as of January 1, 2012.'"

angry tapir writes with an update on the drawn out legal battle between Google and everyone else over their Books service. From the article: "After a so-far fruitless three-year effort to settle the case, Google and the plaintiffs suing it for alleged book-related copyright infringement apparently are moving away from seeking a friendly solution. Google has notified the court that it intends to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed against it by authors and publishers in 2005, in which they allege copyright infringement stemming from Google's wholesale scanning of millions of library books without the permission of copyright owners. Google Books has been at the center of copyright-related controversy since 2005 when the Authors Guild of America and Association of American Publishers sued the search giant. This has been followed by other legal wrangles, including a 2010 suit by the American Society of Media Photographers, lawsuits in France and Germany and conflict with Chinese authors over the book-scanning project."

angry tapir writes with an update on the drawn out legal battle between Google and everyone else over their Books service. From the article: "After a so-far fruitless three-year effort to settle the case, Google and the plaintiffs suing it for alleged book-related copyright infringement apparently are moving away from seeking a friendly solution. Google has notified the court that it intends to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed against it by authors and publishers in 2005, in which they allege copyright infringement stemming from Google's wholesale scanning of millions of library books without the permission of copyright owners. Google Books has been at the center of copyright-related controversy since 2005 when the Authors Guild of America and Association of American Publishers sued the search giant. This has been followed by other legal wrangles, including a 2010 suit by the American Society of Media Photographers, lawsuits in France and Germany and conflict with Chinese authors over the book-scanning project."

angry tapir writes with an update on the drawn out legal battle between Google and everyone else over their Books service. From the article: "After a so-far fruitless three-year effort to settle the case, Google and the plaintiffs suing it for alleged book-related copyright infringement apparently are moving away from seeking a friendly solution. Google has notified the court that it intends to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed against it by authors and publishers in 2005, in which they allege copyright infringement stemming from Google's wholesale scanning of millions of library books without the permission of copyright owners. Google Books has been at the center of copyright-related controversy since 2005 when the Authors Guild of America and Association of American Publishers sued the search giant. This has been followed by other legal wrangles, including a 2010 suit by the American Society of Media Photographers, lawsuits in France and Germany and conflict with Chinese authors over the book-scanning project."

Michael J. Ross writes "Web designers and developers alike are increasingly enthused about the capabilities offered by HTML5, which is generally considered the combination of the latest version of the Web's primary markup language and its related technologies. Consequently, publishers have rushed to market a wide variety of books that purport to explore the inner mysteries of HTML5, even as the standards — and how browsers implement them — are still in flux. In characteristic fashion, O'Reilly Media took the time to wait for some of the dust to settle, and attempted to create a resource more approachable and solid than those thrown together quickly. The final result is Head First HTML5 Programming." Read on for the rest of Michael's review. Head First HTML5 Programming author Eric Freeman and Elisabeth Robson pages 608 pages publisher O'Reilly Media rating 7/10 reviewer Michael J. Ross ISBN 978-1449390549 summary A heavily-illustrated introduction to building web pages and web apps with HTML5. The release of this book is quite timely, given the current developments in web technologies. As one of the underpinning components, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) has undergone tremendous change during its two-decade history — with new element names and attributes being added to try to keep up with the latest multimedia formats, design techniques, and other factors in the Internet's evolution. Even though this newest major revision, HTML5, is still not completely supported by most browsers, much of its capabilities are already available, to one extent or another. Also, forward-thinking designers and developers are not waiting for the final blessing by the W3C to begin learning what they can do with it now and in the future.

This book was written by Eric Freeman and Elisabeth Robson, both of whom possess a lot of experience with the subject matter. This title was released on 18 October 2011, under the ISBN 978-1449390549. Its considerable size, 608 pages, is partly due to the extensive use of humorous pictures, actors, scenarios, clever drawings, and a generous use of whitespace — characteristic of other titles in the Head First series. At first glance, these elements might seem like cartoonish gimmicks, meant only to boost the page count or keep graphics employees busy. Actually, these methods are intended to help readers retain the new knowledge, and make the learning process more pleasant. This approach is covered in more detail in the book's introduction.

The material is organized into ten chapters, followed by an appendix. The only technical prerequisite, for prospective readers to get the most out of the book, is a solid understanding of HTML and CSS. Some JavaScript knowledge would be helpful, but is not necessary. On the publisher's page, visitors will find more details about the book, a couple reader reviews, some brief author bios, links to purchase the print and electronic versions (PDF is the only format), and the reported errata (of which there are eight, as of this writing). The example code and other files for the book can be obtained from WickedlySmart.

The first chapter introduces HTML5, at a high level and a fast pace, focusing on the new features that it offers, such as the new JavaScript APIs: embedded video and audio (without the use of plug-ins), client-side data storage, off-line web apps and caching, geolocation, canvases, sockets, Web Workers, and advanced capabilities for forms and drag-and-drop. JavaScript is also introduced, with some simple example code. Much more detail is presented in the subsequent chapter. The only confusing point is, on page 53, when the authors state that there are three different ways to add JavaScript code to a web page, but the figure shows four permutations. The third chapter explains how to work with events and handlers, using a simple music playlist app to illustrate the ideas. In the subsequent chapter, functions and objects are explored in much greater detail, and the presentation is quite methodical and comprehensible.

With Chapter 5, "Geolocation," the authors shift from establishing a foundation of basic JavaScript knowledge, to showing how to apply it for constructing web applications. In the case of geolocation, readers are stepped through the process of building a simple web app that detects the user's current position, displays it on a Google map, and tracks any changes in the position. The next chapter shows how to make one's code work with web services, using the JavaScript communication APIs, and why JSONP bypasses the problems with XMLHttpRequest requests being blocked for security reasons by the JavaScript same-origin policy. The presentation is solid, except for the claim on page 257 that the callback receives an object, when actually it receives an array of objects. Chapter 7 explicates the new canvas element, which offers capabilities encroaching upon the realm of Adobe's Flash. The next chapter, titled "Video," is a logical continuation of the discussion on the canvas element, because the latter allows one to do a lot more with the video API. The authors demonstrate how to do that, after discussing the different video formats and techniques for writing robust HTML to accommodate as many brands and versions of browsers as possible.

HTML5 has taken the venerable browser cookie, and extended its storage capacity tremendously, in the form of the local storage API (a.k.a. "Web Storage"), which is addressed in the penultimate chapter. Sadly, no troubleshooting information is provided in case the reader finds that the example code does not work in Firefox, even when using a web server (i.e., "http://" instead of "file://") — and instead fails quietly with an error message "localStorage is null" in the JavaScript error console. (For those who are interested, one source of the problem is when the Firefox configuration preference "dom.storage.enabled" has somehow been set to "false.") The tenth and final chapter, "Web Workers," shows how to utilize multithreading in JavaScript code to improve its performance, when possible. Readers using Firefox 8.0 (the latest version as of this writing) will likely find that the example code does not work on a localhost, throwing a "Could not get domain" error message, as a result of a known bug. The appendix briefly covers ten additional topics not discussed in the chapters, including Modernizr, the audio element, jQuery, XHTML, SVG, and more.

With a book this size, it is inevitable that it will contain various blemishes. Some of them are a result of the book production process: In the text, JavaScript tokens are not distinguished from English words in any manner (such as a monospace font or bolding), which can trip up the reader. On some of the two-page spreads, the portions of the images and arrows get lost in the book's gutter. In the many illustrations involving one or more persons saying something, their statements are shown in thought bubbles, which is mildly but invariably disconcerting. Other flaws are results of the writing and/or editing: Commas are oftentimes used where semicolons or periods were called for, or just missing altogether — especially in the mock interviews. Sometimes the conversational style — characteristic of the Head First series — becomes a bit too casual, and in some places the authors are trying too hard, such as the repeated use of "skool."

The example code is generally of good quality, but not always consistent; for instance, is employed in some places, but elsewhere — leaving the reader to wonder why. Also, there's at least one case of (incorrect) curly quotes in the code (page 454). It is helpful to have the example code available for download, although it would have been decidedly better had the root directory of the archive file contain an index.html pointing to all of the included apps, so readers could bookmark that single starting point, rather than having to modify their browser's URL each time. In addition, it is oftentimes not obvious as to which chapter subdirectory corresponds to any given location in the book.

However, the main problem with this book is the sloppy editing, evidenced by the notably high number of errata: "pin point" (page xiv), "test editor" (xxii; should read "text editor"), "iPhone" (xxv; should read "HTML5" or something similar), "folks that" (xxxi; should read "folks who"), "get [a] sense" (1), "on the page 2" (3), "can you get a long way" (21), "assign it [the] empty" (26), "you can also thrown in" (40), "its got" (46), "Your job is the act like" (57), "lets concentrate" (58), "get [the] length" (68), "Go ahead an open up" (90), "What you can" (129; should read "What can you"), "a object" (142), "an new object" (147), "to to" (158), "you [are] saying" (158), "users location" (166), "south" (167), "three properties" (177; should read "four properties"), "google" (186), "including [the] last two methods" (192), "give it a try it" (218), "will use" (220; should read "we'll use"), "take a 90 milliseconds" (221), "the this code" (249), "with out with" (268), "HTML =" (271; should read "HTML5 ="), and "an drawable region" (285). These are just the errata found in the first half of the book. Fortunately, they are in the narrative, and not the example code, which would have had a much more negative impact upon the reader.

This book is definitely an introductory tutorial, and by no means a reference. Not all of the new HTML5 elements are covered, nor is CSS3 provided full coverage. The repetition of concepts may aggravate experienced or impatient programmers: For people with some experience with these technologies, and for people who readily glean information from technical books upon first exposure to the given concept, the frequent repetition in this book would border on tiresome, if it weren't presented so pleasantly, oftentimes with humor. On the other hand, the Head First books are predicated on the approach of presenting information in different formats, to maximize learning. Any newbie should appreciate this volume's clear explanations, even if they are presented multiple times, but differently. Also, there is plenty of testing of one's knowledge, to reinforce what has been learned.

Head First HTML5 Programming is an entertaining yet instructive and compelling tutorial on how beginners can learn to use many of the advanced new techniques in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Michael J. Ross is a freelance web developer and writer.

You can purchase Head First HTML5 Programming from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Michael J. Ross writes "Web designers and developers alike are increasingly enthused about the capabilities offered by HTML5, which is generally considered the combination of the latest version of the Web's primary markup language and its related technologies. Consequently, publishers have rushed to market a wide variety of books that purport to explore the inner mysteries of HTML5, even as the standards — and how browsers implement them — are still in flux. In characteristic fashion, O'Reilly Media took the time to wait for some of the dust to settle, and attempted to create a resource more approachable and solid than those thrown together quickly. The final result is Head First HTML5 Programming." Read on for the rest of Michael's review. Head First HTML5 Programming author Eric Freeman and Elisabeth Robson pages 608 pages publisher O'Reilly Media rating 7/10 reviewer Michael J. Ross ISBN 978-1449390549 summary A heavily-illustrated introduction to building web pages and web apps with HTML5. The release of this book is quite timely, given the current developments in web technologies. As one of the underpinning components, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) has undergone tremendous change during its two-decade history — with new element names and attributes being added to try to keep up with the latest multimedia formats, design techniques, and other factors in the Internet's evolution. Even though this newest major revision, HTML5, is still not completely supported by most browsers, much of its capabilities are already available, to one extent or another. Also, forward-thinking designers and developers are not waiting for the final blessing by the W3C to begin learning what they can do with it now and in the future.

This book was written by Eric Freeman and Elisabeth Robson, both of whom possess a lot of experience with the subject matter. This title was released on 18 October 2011, under the ISBN 978-1449390549. Its considerable size, 608 pages, is partly due to the extensive use of humorous pictures, actors, scenarios, clever drawings, and a generous use of whitespace — characteristic of other titles in the Head First series. At first glance, these elements might seem like cartoonish gimmicks, meant only to boost the page count or keep graphics employees busy. Actually, these methods are intended to help readers retain the new knowledge, and make the learning process more pleasant. This approach is covered in more detail in the book's introduction.

The material is organized into ten chapters, followed by an appendix. The only technical prerequisite, for prospective readers to get the most out of the book, is a solid understanding of HTML and CSS. Some JavaScript knowledge would be helpful, but is not necessary. On the publisher's page, visitors will find more details about the book, a couple reader reviews, some brief author bios, links to purchase the print and electronic versions (PDF is the only format), and the reported errata (of which there are eight, as of this writing). The example code and other files for the book can be obtained from WickedlySmart.

The first chapter introduces HTML5, at a high level and a fast pace, focusing on the new features that it offers, such as the new JavaScript APIs: embedded video and audio (without the use of plug-ins), client-side data storage, off-line web apps and caching, geolocation, canvases, sockets, Web Workers, and advanced capabilities for forms and drag-and-drop. JavaScript is also introduced, with some simple example code. Much more detail is presented in the subsequent chapter. The only confusing point is, on page 53, when the authors state that there are three different ways to add JavaScript code to a web page, but the figure shows four permutations. The third chapter explains how to work with events and handlers, using a simple music playlist app to illustrate the ideas. In the subsequent chapter, functions and objects are explored in much greater detail, and the presentation is quite methodical and comprehensible.

With Chapter 5, "Geolocation," the authors shift from establishing a foundation of basic JavaScript knowledge, to showing how to apply it for constructing web applications. In the case of geolocation, readers are stepped through the process of building a simple web app that detects the user's current position, displays it on a Google map, and tracks any changes in the position. The next chapter shows how to make one's code work with web services, using the JavaScript communication APIs, and why JSONP bypasses the problems with XMLHttpRequest requests being blocked for security reasons by the JavaScript same-origin policy. The presentation is solid, except for the claim on page 257 that the callback receives an object, when actually it receives an array of objects. Chapter 7 explicates the new canvas element, which offers capabilities encroaching upon the realm of Adobe's Flash. The next chapter, titled "Video," is a logical continuation of the discussion on the canvas element, because the latter allows one to do a lot more with the video API. The authors demonstrate how to do that, after discussing the different video formats and techniques for writing robust HTML to accommodate as many brands and versions of browsers as possible.

HTML5 has taken the venerable browser cookie, and extended its storage capacity tremendously, in the form of the local storage API (a.k.a. "Web Storage"), which is addressed in the penultimate chapter. Sadly, no troubleshooting information is provided in case the reader finds that the example code does not work in Firefox, even when using a web server (i.e., "http://" instead of "file://") — and instead fails quietly with an error message "localStorage is null" in the JavaScript error console. (For those who are interested, one source of the problem is when the Firefox configuration preference "dom.storage.enabled" has somehow been set to "false.") The tenth and final chapter, "Web Workers," shows how to utilize multithreading in JavaScript code to improve its performance, when possible. Readers using Firefox 8.0 (the latest version as of this writing) will likely find that the example code does not work on a localhost, throwing a "Could not get domain" error message, as a result of a known bug. The appendix briefly covers ten additional topics not discussed in the chapters, including Modernizr, the audio element, jQuery, XHTML, SVG, and more.

With a book this size, it is inevitable that it will contain various blemishes. Some of them are a result of the book production process: In the text, JavaScript tokens are not distinguished from English words in any manner (such as a monospace font or bolding), which can trip up the reader. On some of the two-page spreads, the portions of the images and arrows get lost in the book's gutter. In the many illustrations involving one or more persons saying something, their statements are shown in thought bubbles, which is mildly but invariably disconcerting. Other flaws are results of the writing and/or editing: Commas are oftentimes used where semicolons or periods were called for, or just missing altogether — especially in the mock interviews. Sometimes the conversational style — characteristic of the Head First series — becomes a bit too casual, and in some places the authors are trying too hard, such as the repeated use of "skool."

The example code is generally of good quality, but not always consistent; for instance, is employed in some places, but elsewhere — leaving the reader to wonder why. Also, there's at least one case of (incorrect) curly quotes in the code (page 454). It is helpful to have the example code available for download, although it would have been decidedly better had the root directory of the archive file contain an index.html pointing to all of the included apps, so readers could bookmark that single starting point, rather than having to modify their browser's URL each time. In addition, it is oftentimes not obvious as to which chapter subdirectory corresponds to any given location in the book.

However, the main problem with this book is the sloppy editing, evidenced by the notably high number of errata: "pin point" (page xiv), "test editor" (xxii; should read "text editor"), "iPhone" (xxv; should read "HTML5" or something similar), "folks that" (xxxi; should read "folks who"), "get [a] sense" (1), "on the page 2" (3), "can you get a long way" (21), "assign it [the] empty" (26), "you can also thrown in" (40), "its got" (46), "Your job is the act like" (57), "lets concentrate" (58), "get [the] length" (68), "Go ahead an open up" (90), "What you can" (129; should read "What can you"), "a object" (142), "an new object" (147), "to to" (158), "you [are] saying" (158), "users location" (166), "south" (167), "three properties" (177; should read "four properties"), "google" (186), "including [the] last two methods" (192), "give it a try it" (218), "will use" (220; should read "we'll use"), "take a 90 milliseconds" (221), "the this code" (249), "with out with" (268), "HTML =" (271; should read "HTML5 ="), and "an drawable region" (285). These are just the errata found in the first half of the book. Fortunately, they are in the narrative, and not the example code, which would have had a much more negative impact upon the reader.

This book is definitely an introductory tutorial, and by no means a reference. Not all of the new HTML5 elements are covered, nor is CSS3 provided full coverage. The repetition of concepts may aggravate experienced or impatient programmers: For people with some experience with these technologies, and for people who readily glean information from technical books upon first exposure to the given concept, the frequent repetition in this book would border on tiresome, if it weren't presented so pleasantly, oftentimes with humor. On the other hand, the Head First books are predicated on the approach of presenting information in different formats, to maximize learning. Any newbie should appreciate this volume's clear explanations, even if they are presented multiple times, but differently. Also, there is plenty of testing of one's knowledge, to reinforce what has been learned.

Head First HTML5 Programming is an entertaining yet instructive and compelling tutorial on how beginners can learn to use many of the advanced new techniques in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Michael J. Ross is a freelance web developer and writer.

You can purchase Head First HTML5 Programming from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

holy_calamity writes "For several years, we've followed the progress of IBM's revolutionary 'racetrack' memory, which stores data inside nanowires for several years. Now Big Blue has made the first prototype integrated onto a single chip, using the CMOS processing technique used in commercial chip fabs. It's still a research prototype, but goes some way to validate IBM's claim that the technology could be commercialized."

holy_calamity writes "For several years, we've followed the progress of IBM's revolutionary 'racetrack' memory, which stores data inside nanowires for several years. Now Big Blue has made the first prototype integrated onto a single chip, using the CMOS processing technique used in commercial chip fabs. It's still a research prototype, but goes some way to validate IBM's claim that the technology could be commercialized."

SharkLaser writes "Mozilla's future looks uncertain. Last week Chrome overtook Firefox's position as the second most popular browser, the new versioning scheme is alienating some Firefox users, and now the advertising deal between Mozilla and Google, the one that almost fully funds Mozilla's operations, is coming to an end. One of Firefox's key managers, Mike Shaver, also left the company in September. 'In 2010, 84% of Mozilla's $123 million in revenue came directly from Google. That's roughly $100 million in funds that will vanish or be drastically cut if the deal is either not renewed or is renegotiated on terms that are less favorable to Mozilla. When the original three-year partnership deal was signed in 2008, Chrome was still on the drawing boards. Today, it is Google's most prominent software product, and it is rapidly replacing Firefox as the alternative browser on every platform.' Recently Mozilla has been trying to get closer with Microsoft by making a Firefox version that defaults to Bing. If Google is indeed cutting funding from Mozilla or tries to negotiate less favorable terms, it could mean Mozilla's future funding coming from Microsoft and Bing."

SharkLaser writes "Mozilla's future looks uncertain. Last week Chrome overtook Firefox's position as the second most popular browser, the new versioning scheme is alienating some Firefox users, and now the advertising deal between Mozilla and Google, the one that almost fully funds Mozilla's operations, is coming to an end. One of Firefox's key managers, Mike Shaver, also left the company in September. 'In 2010, 84% of Mozilla's $123 million in revenue came directly from Google. That's roughly $100 million in funds that will vanish or be drastically cut if the deal is either not renewed or is renegotiated on terms that are less favorable to Mozilla. When the original three-year partnership deal was signed in 2008, Chrome was still on the drawing boards. Today, it is Google's most prominent software product, and it is rapidly replacing Firefox as the alternative browser on every platform.' Recently Mozilla has been trying to get closer with Microsoft by making a Firefox version that defaults to Bing. If Google is indeed cutting funding from Mozilla or tries to negotiate less favorable terms, it could mean Mozilla's future funding coming from Microsoft and Bing."

Greg Leyh is an electrical engineer who has spent most of his career working around particle accelerators and high-voltage machinery. Recently Leyh has been working on The Lightning Foundry, a project to see if humans can replicate the voltage economy effect of lightning. With the help of a Kickstarter campaign and a pair of 10-story Tesla Coil towers he hopes to generate man-made lightning. Greg has agreed to take some time away from his lightning machines and answer your questions. Ask as many as you like but please confine your questions to one per post.

Greg Leyh is an electrical engineer who has spent most of his career working around particle accelerators and high-voltage machinery. Recently Leyh has been working on The Lightning Foundry, a project to see if humans can replicate the voltage economy effect of lightning. With the help of a Kickstarter campaign and a pair of 10-story Tesla Coil towers he hopes to generate man-made lightning. Greg has agreed to take some time away from his lightning machines and answer your questions. Ask as many as you like but please confine your questions to one per post.

hackingbear writes "China's two telecommunications giants, China Telecom and China Unicom, announced Friday they will substantially raise their broadband speeds while further lowering broadband costs by 35% over the next five years. They also acknowledge the existence of monopolistic practices in reply to a recently launched investigation, which is the first of its kind against major Chinese state-owned enterprises. Being state-owned companies, their profits supposedly belong to the nation, but they have also become 'golden rice bowls' for their management and employees, and their supervising departments and officials." If the Chinese government would like to investigate these companies' monopolistic behavior, I have a suggestion on where to start looking.

BobJacobsen writes "The UC Berkeley email system has been either offline, or only providing limited access, for more than a week. How can the place where sendmail originated fall so far? The campus CIO gave an internal seminar (video, slides) where he discussed the incident, the response, and some of the history. Briefly, the growth of email clients was going to overwhelm the system eventually, but the crisis was advanced when a disk failure required a restart after some time offline. Not discussed is the long series of failures to identify and implement the replacement system (1, 2, 3, 4). Like the New York City Dept. of Education problem discussed yesterday, this is a failure of planning and management being discussed as a problem with (inflexible) technology. How can IT people solve things like this?"

First time accepted submitter DrDevil writes "The British spy agency GCHQ recently published a puzzle at canyoucrackit.co.uk (as featured on Slashdot), now just a few days later an academic at the University of Greenwich in England has posted a full video explanation of the puzzle. The puzzle has three stages and is not at all simple — likely to challenge even the best computer science graduates."

1sockchuck writes "Apple may build a huge new data center next door to the Facebook server farm in rural Prineville, Oregon. Slashdot has previously noted the potential that Prineville could become a data center mecca due to its climate, which is ideal for using fresh air to cool servers. The scenario could mirror the trend in rural North Carolina, where both Apple and Facebook have built data centers. It's always been likely that Apple will need at least one other large data center complex to provide backup capabilities for the facility in North Carolina."

Miniaturized stealth submarines purpose-built for smuggling are an impressive example of how much technological ingenuity is poured into evading the edicts of contemporary drug prohibition. Even more impressive to me, though, is news of the communications network that was just shut down by Mexican authorities, which covered much of northern Mexico. The system is attributed to the Zetas drug cartel, and consisted of equipment in four Mexican border states. "The military confiscated more than 1,400 radios, 2,600 cell phones and computer equipment during the operation, as well as power supplies including solar panels, according the Defense Department," says the article. Too bad — a solar-powered, visually unobtrusive, encrypted cell network sounds like something I'd like to sign up for. NPR also has a story.

alphadogg writes "A Cornell University professor is calling the controversial Carrier IQ smartphone software revelations a privacy disaster. 'This is my worst nightmare,' says Stephen Wicker, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell. 'As a professor who studies electronic security, this is everything that I have been working against for the last 10 years. It is an utterly appalling invasion of privacy with immense potential for manipulation and privacy theft that requires immediate federal intervention.'" Read on for a grab-bag of other news about the ongoing story of Carrier IQ's spyware. Federal intervention is already on the menu; new submitter mitcheli writes "Following the video from Trevor Eckhart on Youtube after the filing of the Cease and Desist letter and subsequent reply by the EFF and apology letter (as reported on Slashdot), Senator Franken of the Subcommittee on Privacy Technology and the Law asks some rather pointed questions."

Franken has more reason, apparently, to look into this than might legislators in other countries; an anonymous reader submits news that Cambridge researchers have found the software to be confined to (or at least only confirmed in) American customers' phones. From their report: "We performed an analysis on our dataset of 5572 Android smartphones that volunteers from all over the world helped us create. From those 5572 devices, only 21 were found to be running the software, all of them in the US and Puerto Rico. The affected carriers we observed were AT&T, Boost Mobile and Sprint.
We found no evidence of the Carrier IQ software running on Android devices in any other country."

Another anonymous reader suggests that "Apart from anything else, the fundamental mistake that Carrier IQ made was attempting to silence a developer using a heavy-handed legal threat. Certainly this was the tipping point in terms of bring the whole incident to the public's attention."

Like apparently begets like; reader adeelarshad82 writes "Not surprisingly, the Carrier IQ controversy has resulted in some legal action. Class-action lawsuits have been filed in California and Missouri that accuse Carrier IQ, as well as Samsung and HTC, of violating federal wiretap laws. The California case was filed on behalf of four smartphone users with HTC and Samsung devices and accuses the companies of violating the Federal Wiretap Act, which prohibits the unauthorized interception or illegal use of electronic communications, and California's Unfair Business Practice Act."

Finally, GMGruman writes with the cautionary note that Carrier IQ and Facebook pose "the least of your privacy threats": "[S]o far these forms of monitoring anonymize the data, so an individual's actual privacy is not invaded. And while people fret over these potential invasions, a more pernicious privacy invasion is under way, one that monitors actual individuals and then uses that information to try to direct their behavior. For example, car insurers give monitoring boxes to customers to track their driving behavior and offer a discount if it is 'good.' Of course, the flip side is higher rates or no coverage if the black box decides you are "bad." And, as this blog post points out, this is just one of many such 'Big Brother corporation' efforts out there that give significant power to insurers and others who have a history of abusing personal information, such as for redlining and coverage denial."

oik writes "NPR's Fresh Air this week had an interesting interview with Jeffrey Rosen, one of the authors of Constitution 3.0 , which addresses a number of issues to do with interpreting the US Constitution in the face of new technologies (both present and future). Many of the topics which he touches on come up on Slashdot a lot (including the GPS tracking cases). It's well worth listening to the program (link in the main page), of which the linked article is just a summary."

After years of beautiful concept cars, envy-inspiring demos, and missed production targets starting in 2008, high-efficiency car startup Aptera is liquidating its assets. A pointed excerpt from Wired's account: "The truth is, Aptera always faced long odds and has been in trouble for at least two years. The audience for a sperm-shaped, three-wheeled, electric two-seater was never anything but small. It didn’t help that production of the 2e — at one point promised for October 2009 — was continually delayed as Wilbur ordered redesigns to make it more appealing to the mainstream. Aptera had a small window in which to be a first mover in the affordable EV space, and that window closed the moment the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt hit the market. At that point, Aptera teetered on the brink of irrelevance." As a compulsive driver, I had been hoping to one day drive one of these to save gas money.

Expanding on earlier work from Jim Gettys of Bell Labs with a new article in the ACM Queue, CowboyRobot writes that Gettys "makes the case that the Internet is in danger of collapse due to 'bufferbloat,' 'the existence of excessively large and frequently full buffers inside the network.' Part of the blame is due to overbuffering; in an effort to protect ourselves we make things worse. But the problem runs deeper than that. Gettys' solution is AQM (active queue management) which is not deployed as widely as it should be. 'We are flying on an Internet airplane in which we are constantly swapping the wings, the engines, and the fuselage, with most of the cockpit instruments removed but only a few new instruments reinstalled. It crashed before; will it crash again?'"

New submitter karlnyberg writes with an update to the recently announced de-shredding challenge posted by DARPA: "The team 'All Your Shreds Are Belong To U.S.' has correctly solved all five puzzles, and the Challenge has now ended. You may view the winning team's submissions as well as the complete puzzle solutions by following the links on our homepage. We recognize that many of our participants have devoted countless hours to painstakingly piecing our puzzles back together, and we truly appreciate everyone's efforts. Hopefully you enjoyed the Challenge and learned something new along the way. We certainly did!"

itwbennett writes "On Wednesday the FCC approved the use of medical micropower networks (MMNs) in four blocks of the 400MHz spectrum band despite opposition from broadcast engineers who say they are concerned about interference. MMNs can be used to bypass areas of the nervous system that have been impaired by strokes or spinal cord or brain injuries."