Category: GReader

OS X Lion has a serious security vulnerability allowing hackers to alter the password of any user account, writes security blog Defence in Depth. The OS reportedly allows non-root users the ability to view password hash data. As a consequence, an attacker can potentially use a basic Python script to glean a person’s password….

Bell acquired CTV and all their assets a year ago for $1.3 billion with the goal of accelerating “video growth across all three screens – mobile, online and TV”. Soon after they rolled out the ability to watch BNN on mobile devices and now they’ve gone ahead with live broadcasts of Grey’s Anatomy, The Amazing Race, Criminal Minds, Desperate Housewives, Pan Am and Whitney(?). All this falls under a new property of Bell Media called “CTV MOBILE” and it’s currently only available to Bell and Virgin customers… no word yet on if it’s an exclusive partnership or when Rogers, Bell, TELUS or any of the new carriers customers will be able to watch the shows.

Bell has 300,000 Mobile TV subscribers and this feature of course comes at a price, $5/month for 10 hours of Mobile TV data on smartphones and “Superphones”, tablets are $5 more per month.

Bart Yabsley, EVP, Content Sales and Distribution, Bell Media said “With CTV MOBILE, Bell Media is ensuring that viewers get Canada’s most-watched television programming on every screen, whenever and wherever they want to watch.”

Source: BellMedia

Related posts:

1. Watch Super Bowl XLV live on you Bell/Virgin device
2. CTV goes mobile with Bell “Live TV”
3. Bell offers customers Stanley Cup Playoffs on mobile devices

Canadians could be spending a lot more than $87 for a passport when the new, electronic versions come out next year.

In the latest sign of just how hot social reading tablet apps like Flipboard, Pulse and Zite are becoming, news came out this week that Google is working on its own such app.

Most of us are accustomed to money covered with dead historical figures and scenic historical monuments. In the Great White North, they are minting commemorative coins adorned with Québécois lake dragons and underwater panthers. If you live anywhere but Canada, your money officially sucks. More »

There’s just one week left before Steven Spielberg’s Terra Nova has to pony up and give us some freaking dinosaur action. And finally, the trailers are showing us more than just the same two dinosaur shots we’ve been seeing over and over. More »

Samsung’s latest Android Tab has already gotten the in-box hands-on treatment from the blue shirts at Best Buy, but now we have official word on pricing for the 8.9-inch WiFi-only model, set to hit stores as soon as Thursday. Willing to settle for the 16GB flavor? Get ready to hand over $469 to take one of these slim slates home, or pull out another Benjamin to double capacity to 32 gigs — that beefed-up model will run you $569. You’ll also get Android 3.1 Honeycomb with “the freedom of TouchWiz,” a 3 megapixel camera on the rear with 2MPs up front, and a dual-core 1GHz processor. Check out our Tab 8.9 hands-on, or hit up the source link for the full feature rundown from Sammy.

[Thanks, Kevin]

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 WiFi gets US pricing, 16GB model starts at $469 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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1982: At precisely 11:44 a.m., Scott Fahlman posts the following electronic message to a computer-science department bulletin board at Carnegie Mellon University:

19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman 🙂
From: Scott E Fahlman

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

🙂

Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use:

🙁

With that post, Fahlman became the acknowledged originator of the ASCII-based emoticon. From those two simple emoticons (a portmanteau combining the words emotion and icon) have sprung dozens of others that are the joy, or bane, of e-mail, text-message and instant-message correspondence the world over.

See Also:

Photo Gallery
Emoticons Jump From Web to Real World 🙂

Fahlman was not, however, the first person to use typographical symbols to convey emotions. The practice goes back at least to the mid-19th century, when Morse code symbols were occasionally used for the same purpose. Other examples exist as well.

In 1881, the American satirical magazine Puck published what we would now call emoticons, using hand-set type. No less a wordsmith than Ambrose Bierce suggested using what he called a “snigger point” — \__/ — to convey jocularity or irony. Baltimore’s Sunday Sun suggested a tongue-in-cheek sideways character in 1967.

But none of those caught on. The internet emoticon truly traces its lineage directly to Fahlman, who says he came up with the idea after reading “lengthy diatribes” from people on the message board who failed to get the joke or the sarcasm in a particular post — which is probably what “given current trends” refers to in his own, now-famous missive.

To remedy this, Fahlman suggested using 🙂 and 🙁 to distinguish between posts that should be taken humorously and those of a more serious nature.

Fahlman’s original post was lost for a couple of decades and believed gone for good, until it was retrieved from an old backup tape, thus cementing his claim of priority.

Source: Various

Photo: Carnegie Mellon professor Scott E. Fahlman smiles away in his home office. (Gene J. Puskar/AP)

This article first appeared on Wired.com Sept. 19, 2008.

Memory cards in a video camera aboard a post-Second Word War military aircraft may hold a clue as to why the plane crashed on Saturday at a Reno, Nev., air show killing, nine people, including the pilot.

The next time someone tries telling you that videogames are a waste of time be sure to bring up Foldit, a game that gives players the chance to play with proteins by trying to fold them, and how it was used to solve a problem scientists have been working on for over a decade. Oh and the problem dealt with understanding an enzyme that will help lead to a cure for diseases like AIDS.

Despite the fact that putting the enzyme on Foldit was a last resort (scientists even tried using a special protein-folding program to solve this) it took members of the Foldit Contenders Group less than ten days to find a solution to this puzzle. This may be one of the coolest things I have ever read, and just goes to prove that videogames are good for more than just goofing around for a few hours. Of course, we already knew that, didn’t we?

Gamers solve molecular puzzle that baffled scientists [Cosmic Log]

Normally we wouldn’t get too excited about a thermostat, even a so-called smart one. But, unlike what normally passes for a “smart” home heating solution, Honeywell’s upcoming touchscreen devices are going to be paired with some real brains courtesy of Opower. Details of the partnership are still a little thin, but we do know that customers will be able to program and monitor energy usage, not just from the thermostat itself but, via internet connected devices like smartphones. Opower will even provide suggestions for trimming energy bills. The first trials are expected to begin in the next few months through utility companies, but Honeywell eventually expects to offer the devices through broader retail channels. Check out the full PR after the break.

Continue reading Honeywell and Opower team up for cloud-connected smart thermostat

Honeywell and Opower team up for cloud-connected smart thermostat originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 06:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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edit@hollywoodreporter.com (Philiana Ng)
Fox’s cult hit returns Friday, Sept. 23 at 9 p.m.

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