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Wladimir Palant, developer of the most popular add-on in the world, Adblock Plus, is also an active contributor to the Planet Mozilla blog community. Over the last few days, in response to Mozilla's new name and shame list of slow add-ons, Palant has been investigating whether Mozilla's testing methods are actually accurate. Rather surprisingly, it turns out that Mozilla's numbers could be significantly wrong -- and if they're not wrong, the factors that Mozilla uses to tabulate an add-ons final score should definitely be made more transparent. In the first set of tests, Palant shows that FlashGot's position in the top 10 is probably due to a fault in Mozilla's testing setup, and that add-ons can perform very differently depending on which operating system they're being tested on. In the second analysis, Palant uncovers an irregularity that doesn't seem to have an obvious cause -- but it could be due to an I/O bottleneck on Mozilla's test machines. Basically, even though performance testing of Read It Later is disabled because of a bug, it still (somehow!) manages to record a 14% slow-down on Windows 7. Palant concludes both analyses by scolding Mozilla for going public with the performance data before its testing methods had been confirmed accurate. It definitely looks like Mozilla has been more than a little reckless, considering the importance of Firefox's add-on ecosystem. Adblock Plus developer pokes holes in Mozilla's new add-on performance tests originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 05:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/08/adblock-plus-developer-pokes-holes-in-mozillas-new-add-on-perfo/ SUN MICROSYSTEMS STANDARD MICROSYSTEMS SRA INTERNATIONAL  'Tis a sad, sad day for fans of all things retro. In a developed nation dominated by high-speed connections, near-ubiquitous 3G and sub- $€300 computers, it's more than a little astounding that the Minitel is just now being axed by France Télécom. Originally, the aforesaid machine was ordered by the French government in the 1970s "as part of an initiative to get people to share information and, eventually, reduce the consumption of paper." In a bid to rapidly increase adoption, the terminals -- complete with a monochrome screen and bantam keyboard -- were actually doled out to denizens free of charge, with access billed on a per-minute basis. It obviously required a phone line, and things were kept understandably simple; users rarely did more than shop for train tickets, check the occasional bank account and peruse the phone directory. Astonishingly, France's precursor to the internet still raked in €30 million in revenue last year, but the time has finally come to push existing users onto more sophisticated solutions. As of June 30, 2012, "the Minitel will die." 'Course, the service itself will be the only thing shuttered -- those memories are bound to last a lifetime. Broadband claims another: France Telecom putting the kibosh on Minitel originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink  All Things D |  The Wall Street Journal | Email this | Comments 
 Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/JwIwJTysI68/ NOVELLUS SYSTEMS NOVELL NETWORK APPLIANCE  It's one thing for Fifth Ave. to get clogged up each time a new iPhone or iPad gets released, but Grand Central Terminal? Avid NYC commuters best plan their vacation days accordingly, as one of the city's biggest transit hubs is about to get a heck of a lot more busy -- and not because White Plains is the new Southampton. The New York Post is reporting that Apple and the MTA have agreed on a decade-long deal that'll see a 23,000-square foot Apple Store take the place of Charlie Palmer's Metrazur restaurant, with Cupertino's rent to be set at $800,000 per year (rising to $1 million after ten years pass). For those curious, that's around $500,000 more than the eatery before it, and Apple's responsible for refurbishing the space. That cacophony of voices you hear? Touristy cheers drowning out local jeers. Apple Store coming to Grand Central Terminal, travel disruptions guaranteed for next iPhone launch originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Jul 2011 21:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Electronista | New York Post | Email this | Comments 
 Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/kYVjewMnaBQ/ MICROSEMI MICROS SYSTEMS MICRON TECHNOLOGY I'm getting fat; that's what you see on the screenshot to the right -- my gradual move from chubby to portly. But never mind the numbers, look at the pretty graph! If you've ever read The Hacker's Diet, this graph should be instantly recognizable. Each point shows the weight for a given day, while the trend line lets you see if you're gaining or losing weight. When I use my "main" PC, I have a homebrew solution for creating and maintaining this graph. But I've had to find a temporary solution for Android, and Libra is it. It's a beautifully simple app, very true to the spirit of The Hacker's Diet. You can create a shortcut on your homescreen that brings you right into the data entry screen, so you just tap the shortcut every morning, feed in your weight for the day and hit OK, and then you get to see your progress (or lack thereof) on the graph. The app remembers the previous day's weigh-in, which makes it easy to enter today's weight (as they're usually not too different). The graph is zoomable and scrollable, and most importantly, you can export the data to CSV so you're not locked into the app. If you ever need to track your weight using an Android device for any period of time, Libra is one excellent solution. Libra for Android helps you track your weight using The Hacker's Diet system originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/libra-for-android-helps-you-track-your-weight-using-the-hackers/ MICRON TECHNOLOGY MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY METHODE ELECTRONICS When someone tells me about a "platformer", my first thought is that it's probably a simple game that mainly revolves around running and jumping around, with a minimal plot. [Play a Zelda game! -Ed] Elephant Quest is one platformer that managed to prove me completely wrong. Yes, you do run and jump around, and you also shoot at stuff. But the game has much, much more going for it. Basically, as you run, jump and shoot, you gain experience points and level up. Hitting Space brings you into an interface where you can convert your experience points into Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Dexterity points. Once you've "specialized" your points, you then get to pick what exact skills you'd like to enhance in each field. For example, you could use your dexterity to enhance your weapons or increase your swiftness. The game is played in a huge maze; you go through rooms using doors, and there's a large map. As the name implies, there are quests you can take, too. For example, one quest had me searching all over the place for ten balloons. The bottom line is that this is a surprisingly deep game that just might ensnare you for a good bit longer than you intended to play. Beware! Elephant Quest is an addictive, deep platformer originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/25/elephant-quest-is-an-addictive-deep-platformer/ OSI SYSTEMS ORACLE OPENWAVE SYSTEMS  Moments ago, Mozilla stripped the release candidate moniker from Firefox 4 Mobile and pronounced it fit for public release. If you have a Nokia N900 phone, or a fairly-modern Android 2.0-or-later device, go ahead and install it from the Market, by using scanning the QR code after the break, or by visiting Firefox.com/m. Accompanying the release is the launch of Spark, a cute social game that's designed to fuel the adoption of Firefox 4 Mobile, much like last week's use of Glow and Twitter Party during Firefox 4 PC's release. While the browser still feels a little rough around the edges, it's definitely worth trying out if you're still using Android's stock browser. Its JavaScript performance is significantly better than any other Android browser, and if you use Firefox on your PC, its built-in Sync functionality is awesome. Over the next few days we'll have plenty of tips and tricks for Firefox 4 Mobile, and a list of the best add-ons available for the new browser. Continue reading Firefox 4 Mobile officially released for Android and Maemo devices Firefox 4 Mobile officially released for Android and Maemo devices originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/29/firefox-4-mobile-officially-released-for-android-and-maemo-devic/ ZIONS BAN YAHOO YAHOO Judging by the headlines today, Samsung's 3D R&D department made a huge mistake, just check them out: "Who Could Have Guessed: 3D Hurts Your Eyes", "Samsung-funded study finds 3D video causes extra eye strain, fatigue", "Samsung study finds that 3D video causes eye strain, fatigue". It seems obvious that Samsung's research grant financing a UC Berkeley study published in the Journal of Vision was wasted, except for one minor issue -- all of those headlines are wrong. "The zone of comfort: Predicting visual discomfort with stereo displays" is actually trying to find out why 3D-related eyestrain happens. That it can and does happen with poorly formatted video, whether 2D, 3D or otherwise, is already known. Scrolling down beyond the abstract reveals the prof's data actually indicated a wider comfort zone than 3D video producers commonly assumed with their percentage rule of thumb. It's a Friday night and you don't have to pick thumbing through dry descriptions of experiments over whatever your plans are, but that's why you have us. Shockingly, companies desperately hawking 3D tech are busy making it better instead of undermining their own products, but you'd have to actually read the study to find out for sure. Samsung studies 3D viewing discomfort, finds out bloggers don't read originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 21:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Journal of Vision | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/22/samsung-studies-3d-viewing-discomfort-finds-out-bloggers-dont/ VERIFONE HOLDINGS VEECO INSTRUMENTS VARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATES Funny -- we (almost) asked this same exact question in August of 2009, just after Snow Leopard had been loosed on the unsuspecting public. But as fate seems to have it, each and every OS overhaul brings gobs of issues, and regardless of how hard the problem finders in Cupertino work, there's simply too many unchecked variables to squash each and every bug prior to release. And with that, we present to you just a handful of the biggest quirks that have cropped up since a cool million of you downloaded Lion. For one, you can kiss Rosetta support goodbye, and secondly, it seems as if 10.7 is seriously cramping third-party NAS support for Time Machine. We've also had numerous reports from folks that are having issues dragging application installs to their Applications folder, not to mention an uptick in Guest account crashes. Of course, there's also the whole "I can't get my free update to Lion!" thing, busted Windows partitions and a veritable plethora of dilemmas when looking at Pro Tools and Cubase. Hit the links below to join the misery party, or feel free to start your own in comments below. Oh, and if you're furious that Lion and its incompatibilities have ruined your livelihood... well, welcome to the downside of early adoption. Here's hoping a raft of updates cures whatever's ailing you in the days and weeks to come. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] View Poll Mac OS X Lion: what's broken (or working) for you? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Jul 2011 13:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Apple Forums (1), (2), CNET, Sound on Sound | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/23/mac-os-x-lion-whats-broken-or-working-for-you/ THQ TEXAS INSTRUMENTS TERADATA It has emerged that the underlying cause of RSA's SecurID gaffe was the recently-reported zero-day vulnerability found in Adobe's Flash Player. The exploit, which used specially-crafted Flash embedding in Excel spreadsheets, was first reported on March 15 and has since been fixed. RSA was hacked sometime in the first half of March when an employee was successfully spear phished and opened an infected spreadsheet. As soon as the spreadsheet was opened, an advanced persistent threat ( APT) -- a backdoor Trojan -- called Poison Ivy was installed. From there, the attackers basically had free reign of RSA's internal network, which led to the eventual dissemination of data pertaining to RSA's two-factor authenticators. The attack is reminiscent of the APTs used in the China vs. Google attacks from last year -- and indeed, Uri Rivner, the head of new technologies at RSA is quick to point out that that other big companies are being attacked, too: "The number of enterprises hit by APTs grows by the month; and the range of APT targets includes just about every industry. Unofficial tallies number dozens of mega corporations attacked [...] These companies deploy any imaginable combination of state-of-the-art perimeter and end-point security controls, and use all imaginable combinations of security operations and security controls. Yet still the determined attackers find their way in." What we'd like to know, though, is whether the attack on RSA was caused by Adobe's lackadaisical approach to patching Flash -- or was it the other way around? Was it the RSA attack that first brought the zero-day vulnerability to Adobe's attention? Security firm RSA attacked using Excel-Flash one-two sucker punch originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 06:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/06/security-firm-rsa-attacked-using-excel-flash-one-two-sucker-punc/ WESTERN DIGITAL VOLT INFORMATION SCIENCES VISHAY INTERTECHNOLOGY |
Bots -- like the kind which 
