Slashdot Mirror

DMandPenfold writes "The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US financial regulator, has been accused of destroying thousands of data files on high profile inquiries including an early-stage investigation into convicted Ponzi scheme fraudster Bernard Madoff. The allegations, raised by former SEC employee Darcy Flynn, have prompted the US Senate Judiciary Committee to write to SEC chairwoman Mary Schapiro to demand an immediate explanation. The SEC exists to set a tough example on corporate governance, and it fines banks heavily for both lax practice and deliberate malpractice. Questions over any involvement it may have in sensitive document destruction are not likely to sit comfortably with some in the industry. The SEC insists it has kept records in accordance with the law on its computer system."

svenski writes "Atari User reports that Atari Inc. have begun to target the retro community and have now turned their attentions to atari2600.org, a website first registered in 2000, demanding the domain name be handed over."

coondoggie writes "Denizens of the malware underworld who sell access to compromised computers do so at varying rates depending on where the machines are located, researchers told the Usenix Security Symposium this week. The researchers followed what they called the pay-per-install (PPI) industry, which obtains infected machines from which malware can be launched and sells access to these machines to parties looking for someplace to execute malicious code. Sometimes the PPI sellers hire middlemen to supply the compromised machines, and the PPI dealer retails them."

disco_tracy writes "The leading social networks demand that members use their real names, and they're not afraid to evict violators. Many Facebook users have quietly complied, despite the problems that rule creates for political dissidents, stalking survivors and others. Much of this discussion has centered around people in physical or financial danger of having their identities revealed. But there are broader reasons for social networks to stop pushing real-name policies."

An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from the Opposable Thumbs blog: "It doesn't take much raw power to play Nintendo or SNES games on a modern PC; emulators could do it in the 1990s with a mere 25MHz of processing power. But emulating those old consoles accurately — well, that's another challenge entirely; accurate emulators may need up to 3GHz of power to faithfully recreate aging tech. ... As an example, compare the spinning triforce animation from the opening to Legend of Zelda on the ZSNES and bsnes emulators. On the former, the triforces will complete their rotations far too soon as a result of the CPU running well over 40 percent faster than a real SNES. These are little details, but if you have an eye for accuracy, they can be maddening. ... The primary demands of an emulator are the amount of times per second one processor must synchronize with another. An emulator is an inherently serial process. Attempting to rely on today's multi-core processors leads to all kinds of timing problems. Take the analogy of an assembly line: one person unloads the boxes, another person scans them, another opens them, another starts putting the item together, etc. Synchronization is the equivalent of stalling out and clearing the entire assembly line, then starting over on a new product. It's an incredible hit to throughput. It completely negates the benefits of pipelining and out-of-order execution. The more you have to synchronize, the faster your assembly line has to move to keep up."

dotarray writes with news that Notch, creator of Minecraft, has received a letter from Zenimax, parent company of Bethesda, demanding that he rename his company's new game, which is called Scrolls. They claim it bears too strong a resemblance to The Elder Scrolls. Notch said: "First of all, I love Bethesda. I assume this nonsense is partly just their lawyers being lawyers, and a result of trademark law being the way it is. ... I agree that the word 'Scrolls' is part of that trademark, but as a gamer, I have never ever considered that series of (very good) role playing games to be about scrolls in any way, nor was that ever the focal point of neither their marketing nor the public image. The implication that you could own the right to all individual words within a trademark is also a bit scary. We looked things up and realized they didn’t have much of a case, but we still took it seriously. Nothing about Scrolls is meant to in any way derive from or allude to their games."

Michael J. Ross writes "With the proliferation of handheld devices that allow access to the Web, more business owners and other technology decision-makers are demanding that their organizations' websites be fully accessible on those devices, and even be repackaged as new web-based applications. But designers and developers who may be quite proficient in making non-mobile websites and web apps, can feel uncertain as to how to craft those products, or even where to start the process of learning how to do so. Recently, several books have been published to address this need, including Build Mobile Websites and Apps for Smart Devices, authored by Earle Castledine, Myles Eftos, and Max Wheeler." Read on for the rest of Michael's review Build Mobile Websites and Apps for Smart Devices author Earle Castledine, Myles Eftos, Max Wheeler pages 300 pages publisher SitePoint rating 8/10 reviewer Michael J. Ross ISBN 978-0987090843 summary An approachable guide to getting started building mobile web apps. This title was published by SitePoint on 29 June 2011, under the ISBN 978-0987090843. The book's contents span 300 pages, and are organized into a preface, eight chapters, an appendix, and an index. The preface contains the usual meta information about a technical book; but what really shines is its intro section, which enthusiastically entices the reader to jump into the burgeoning field of mobile web development. The appendix, comprising little more than two pages, presents only the most basic information on how to utilize whatever native web server might be running on the reader's Linux, OS X, or Windows Vista/7 machine. The more than 49 percent of computer owners still using Windows XP (as of this writing), will need to look elsewhere for information on installing and configuring Apache, IIS, or some other web server, should they want to test their apps locally. In terms of prerequisites for this book, readers are expected to be proficient in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but not necessarily HTML5 and CSS3, whose concepts are explained as needed throughout the text.

The publisher maintains a web page for the book, where visitors can find the table of contents, errata (none as of this writing), the book's index, and three free sample chapters (Chapters 1, 2, and 4) in PDF format. Visitors can order the print version of the book, the electronic version (in three different formats: PDF, EPUB, and MOBI), and an online course hosted by Learnable (comprising lessons, video tutorials, Q&A sessions, and the example code).

The first chapter introduces the basic concepts and rationale of mobile apps, as well as some of the key decisions one will face in creating them, such as whether to make a web app versus a native app, and the options for providing a mobile experience. The authors briefly describe the example app — a tool for recording and sharing celebrity sightings — which is designed and created sequentially in the material that follows. But the chapter does not fulfill the promise made for it in the preface, where the reader is told he will "be guided through the process of designing and building a mobile web application"; on the contrary, the chapter does not explain how to design and build one.

That effort begins in the second chapter, where the authors discuss some high-level considerations for designing the user interfaces of mobile devices, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of various navigation and content structuring options. The bulk of the narrative involves wireframing the design for the example app, selecting colors and fonts, and crafting an appropriate icon for it. Readers learn of the advantages of using relative units in their CSS, but not how to get all the elements positioned properly regardless of the target device's resolution, when mixing relative units for text and pixel units for images. The section "Scalable Images," later in the subsequent chapter, is a start, but is not sufficient for non-SVG images.

Chapter 3, "Markup for Mobile," is the longest of them all, primarily because it presents much if not all of the source code written by the authors for the initial version of their example app. The majority of the code is in HTML and CSS, with a focus upon the effects made possible using HTML5 and CSS3. Also discussed are the resource limitations of typical mobile devices, content and menu display options, image techniques and scalability, viewport meta element settings, icons, multimedia, and more. Oddly, on pages 71-72, the resource limitations of iOS are repeated, with only slightly different wording. How could the proofreaders have missed this glaring redundancy?

The fourth chapter, "Mobile Web Apps," addresses the logical next step: enhancing a mobile website so it can function as a web app — for which JavaScript is used extensively. After briefly mentioning a couple of the better-known mobile development frameworks, the authors select jQuery as a library for working with the DOM, to speed development and make the example code more platform neutral. There follows an interesting discussion of touch events on mobile devices, how they compare to mouse events, and techniques for best handling them. But the main goal is to show how to load, swap, and go back to pages so as to most closely simulate the snappy behavior of native apps. The extensive code and narrative in this chapter are the most complex of any in the book, and thus will likely be the most challenging for any reader who is not adept with JavaScript and/or jQuery, or who does not have the patience to work through the example code.

At first glance, it would appear that native apps have a huge advantage over web apps, in that they can access information from their mobile devices' capabilities — such as accelerometers and cameras — historically unavailable to mobile web browsers. Fortunately, an increasing number of standard interfaces are allowing web apps to access that data — and this is the topic of the fifth chapter. The reader is shown how to capture and utilize geolocation data, device rotation and acceleration, as well as shake and touch gestures. The chapter concludes with coverage of how to use HTML5 Offline Web Applications API for enabling an app to work when no network access is available. The subsequent chapter, "Polishing up Our App," shows the reader how to do just that — specifically, preventing the navigation header from scrolling off the screen, handling click processing delays, displaying dialog boxes, storing data on the client device, and other differences. The narrative is clear, except for a perplexing ornithological expression, "Duck-type" (page 182). Experienced developers will appreciate the section on mobile coding best practices, based on controllers and custom events — for minimizing programming headaches as a project's code becomes sizable.

The last two chapters explain how to convert a web app into a native app, using PhoneGap, an HTML5 application platform that allows a Web app to access those resources of the mobile device that would otherwise be unavailable, such as data in the filesystem and images from any built-in camera. Before demonstrating the details of how to implement those capabilities, the authors show how to install the development environments for all of the supported platforms (including Apple iOS and Google Android), and then PhoneGap itself. Lastly, readers learn how to try to monetize their finished web apps by uploading them to the various app stores.

The authors make extensive use of example source code, to illustrate the ideas being discussed, which works well, partly because the code is generally explained clearly and commented as needed. A code archive is available containing the source code used in the book, except that of the first two chapters and the last two, which collectively is minimal. (Look for the "Downloads" button on that GitHub page to avoid having to download all the files separately.) Beware that some of the sample code appears to be incorrect or incomplete, e.g., stars.html in the directories "ch3" and "ch4" appear to be unstyled, and "javascripts/ch3/untitled file" is empty. Readers who elect to type in any code directly from the book, should watch out for "curly quotes" (e.g., page 230), and instead substitute the corresponding straight equivalents.

In terms of the physical presentation of the book, at 9.9 x 8 inches, it is taller and wider than the standard nowadays, allowing for what appears to be a relatively larger font, which makes the text more readable. The attractive color figures are a welcome change from the usual black-and-white screenshots found in most computer books. They enhance the overall appearance of the book's interior and the experience of reading the narrative.

Speaking of which, most of the narrative is quite clear. However, one critical topic for mobile design is screen resolution, including how to best defensively account for that in one's design and coding. This book's coverage of the topic is divided into at least two different places (pages 40 and 55), and should have been consolidated, in the third chapter. Unlike most programming books littered with chapter summaries, this one appears to have only one section with a summary, which oddly does not summarize the information presented in the section, but instead offers some interpretation thereof. Also, American readers might stumble over a few of the words that use the English/Australian spelling, e.g., "license" (page 239).

Some of the phrasing will likely befuddle the majority of readers, especially in cases where the authors fail to define their terms, e.g., the first bullet point on page 47. There are a few minor inconsistencies in the writing, such as "fill out forms" and "fill in a form" (on the same page, 32), but nothing that would cause confusion on the reader's part. The overall writing style is friendly, although sometimes overdone with an excessive use of exclamation marks (e.g., page 40). The text contains some errata (including several that suggest that the SitePoint copyeditors are unfamiliar with the ability of even a common word processor such as Microsoft Word to detect duplicate words): "to thank to" (page xxi), "the the" (pages 8 and 84), "for for" (13), "look at [in] Chapter 6" (34), "let[']s break" (44), ", (" (54 and 142), "no way to we can used" (55), "[up] to this point" (82), "try and" (82, 93, 131, and 167; should read "try to"), "support [for] standalone mode" (89), "are are" (139), "it's" (162; should read "its"), "if there are" (172; should read "if there were"), "ultimately .depend" (196), "On[c]e you've installed" (203), "we're yet" (212; should read "we've yet"), "an an" (225), "more detail that" (238; should read "more detail than"), and "a a" (240).

Yet none of the aforementioned problems are of great significance, and do not detract from the value of the material presented. All three authors have extensive experience in designing and developing mobile web applications, and this is reflected in the authority with which they not only offer the technical details, but also make recommendations to the reader. This book would serve as an excellent starting point for any web programmer who wishes to learn how to create mobile web sites and applications.

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

You can purchase Build Mobile Websites and Apps for Smart Devices from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

An anonymous reader writes "'Tea. Earl Grey. Hot,' is a command familiar to every Trek fan as representing everyday use of replicator technology. While its use on the show is simply sci-fi wizardry, the beginnings of that technology is now making it into homes, and could spark an industrial revolution. 'New 3D printing and other so-called additive manufacturing technologies are based on methods that industries developed over the past quarter century to rapidly create prototypes of mechanical parts for testing. But as these methods become increasingly sophisticated, demand is rising to use them to manufacture finished products, not only in factories but also at a boutique, one-off level for individuals. ... Already, 3D printing has been used to make tools and artworks, custom-fitted prosthetics for amputees, components for aviation and medical instruments, solid medical models of bones and organs based on MRI scans, paper-based photovoltaic cells, and the body panels for a lightweight hybrid automobile.'"

hackingbear writes "Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn will replace some of its workers with 1 million robots in three years to cut rising labor expenses and improve efficiency. Foxconn, the world's largest maker of computer components, which assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia, employing 1 million (human) laborers in mainland China, is in the spotlight after a string of suicides of workers at its massive Chinese plants. As labor regulations tighten up in China, human laborers demanding wage rises become replaceable."

An anonymous reader sends this quote from USA Today: "The University of Missouri announced Wednesday it is joining an effort by some of the country's top colleges to build 'ultra' high-speed data networks in their local communities. The project is known as Gig.U: The University Community Next Generation Innovation Project. The 29 participating schools include Arizona State, Duke, Florida, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Florida and Wake Forest University. The Aspen Institute, a Colorado-based nonprofit, initiated the effort. The schools and their local partners will solicit proposals from telecommunications companies in their area. They hope to quickly build high-speed broadband networks in communities with low unemployment and heavy demand for such services."

The Hub writes "The Economist writes a thoughtful article about the next generation of HDTVs and how they will provide resolutions beyond 1080p. The drive for higher resolution is driven in part by the demands of 3D content. Also, some see streaming higher resolution content to the home as a way to make up for declining DVD sales. This would mean the studios would have to better embrace services such as Netflix or stream directly to the consumer. Mind you, picture quality is driven by more than the number of pixels."

An anonymous reader writes "A group of Senators are meeting in secret today, while most people are focused on the 'debt ceiling' issue, in order to try to rush through a renewal of the FISA Amendments Act, which expressly allowed warrantless wiretapping in the U.S. The law isn't set to expire until next year, but some feel that the debt ceiling crisis is a good distraction to pass the extension without having to debate the issue in public. The meeting is being held in secret, but it's not classified, so people can demand to know how their Senator voted."

An anonymous reader writes "A UK High Court judge has ruled that BT must block access to a website which provides links to pirated movies. Justice Arnold ruled that BT must use its blocking technology CleanFeed — which is currently used to prevent access to websites featuring child sexual abuse — to block Newzbin 2. 'Currently CleanFeed is dealing with a small, rural road in Scotland,' ISPA council member James Blessing told BBC Radio 4's PM programme. 'Trying to put Newzbin and other sites into the same blocking technology would be a bit like shutting down the M1. It is not designed to do that.' Digital rights organisation the Open Rights Group said the result could set a "dangerous" precedent. "Website blocking is pointless and dangerous. These judgements won't work to stop infringement or boost creative industries. And there are serious risks of legitimate content being blocked and service slowdown. If the goal is boosting creators' ability to make money from their work then we need to abandon these technologically naive measures, focus on genuine market reforms, and satisfy unmet consumer demand," said ORG campaigner Peter Bradwell."

MojoKid writes "When AMD launched their Barts GPU that powers the Radeon 6850 and 6870, they added support for a new type of anti-aliasing called Morphological AA (MLAA). However, Intel originally developed MLAA in 2009 and they have released a follow-up paper on the topic--including a discussion of how the technique could be handled by the CPU. Supersampling is much more computationally and bandwidth intensive than multisampling, but both techniques are generally too demanding of more horsepower than modern consoles or mobile devices are able to provide. Morphological Anti-aliasing, in contrast, is performed on an already-rendered image. The technique is embarrassingly parallel and, unlike traditional hardware anti-aliasing, can be effectively handled by the CPU in real time. MLAA is also equally compatible with ray tracing or rasterized graphics."

An anonymous reader writes "The developer of the KDE System Settings application has launched a formal complaint against GNOME for renaming 'Control Center' to 'System Settings' in GNOME 3.0. This developer is demanding that GNOME immediately change the name of their control panel area. Developers on both sides are now discussing this act."

An anonymous reader writes "The Virtual Mine, an interactive simulation set in the virtual world of Second Life designed to examine the effects of mountaintop coal mining, has been nominated for an Emmy Award for new approaches to news and documentary programming. From the article: 'The Virtual Mine allows visitors to take a closer look at the challenges of balancing the environment, power demands, and economic interests by inviting them to take part in a story as it unfolds through a series of three games. While it was created with educators and students in mind, the games can be played in groups or by individuals alike.'"

An anonymous reader writes "New York Times has reported that Internet activist Aaron Swartz has been indicted for stealing more than 4 million documents from JSTOR." The indictment contains an exciting tale featuring trespassing, MAC address forgery, a Python script or two, and even computers hidden under a cardboard box. El Reg has a decent summary. Demand Progress has released an official response claiming the charges are trumped up nonsense.

MikeChino writes "The UN Population Division just announced that the world's human population will hit 7 billion by Halloween 2011. The increase of one billion people in the past 12 years is worrying, especially since the global population only reached one billion total in the early 19th century. In the next 20 years, our population growth is predicted to rise to 8 billion people as our demand for food increases by 50 percent, water by 30 percent and energy by 50 percent." Not everyone finds it to be worrying per se.

asto21 writes "Previously, representatives from the Finnish music industry filed a lawsuit against Elisa, one of the country's largest ISPs, demanding that it should block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay. In a reply filed at the district court, Elisa has refused to comply, describing the blocking demands as unreasonable."

An anonymous reader writes "A federal jury in Texas has decided against Apple in a patent infringement lawsuit and ordered it to pay $8 million to Personal Audio LLC, a patent licensing company (aka troll). The lawsuit started in 2009. Last year Apple's three fellow defendants (Sirius XM Radio, Coby Electronics and Archos) settled. Apple said the patents were invalid and not infringed. The patent holder demanded $84M and will now get about 10% of that amount. Juries in East Texas frequently rule in favor of patent holders. In the same district court Lodsys has already filed four lawsuits. In one of them it targets seven app developers and Apple has moved to intervene. The first two developers were already given a deadline: they must answer Lodsys's complaint by July 21, unless they request an extension."