Rowling wept for Potter

Some stories and specially in books can give high emotions to people

that can rise tears. Harry Potter's stories are not that full of

emotions, but when a long, and good story ends it can burst out in

crying.

Author

JK Rowling admits that she felt “terrible” for the first two days after

completing the seventh and final Harry Potter book. After that, it all

got a bit easier.

Rowling finished writing the book on 11th January this year, and

announced it to the world by scrawling it on a bust in her hotel room

at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh on February 1.

And now that the Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows has been

released, Rowling opens up about her emotions after completing the

series that has captured the world for about a decade.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Tags: author | Completing | Deathly | Edinburgh | emotions | finished | harry potter | JK Rowling | Released | Writing

What it took to hack the iPhone

The iPhone vulnerability that could let hackers steal data or commandeer the device also exists in the desktop edition of Apple's Mac OS X operating system, the exploit's researchers said Tuesday.

Charles Miller, one of the three researchers from Baltimore-based Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) who found the bug and wrote proof-of-concept exploits, confirmed that the vulnerability in the iPhone version of Safari is also present in the desktop version of the browser. Safari is included with all Mac OS X installations.

The Windows version of Safari is also vulnerable. "[But] it may or may not be exploitable there," Miller said.

Source: computerworld.com.au

Tags: -based | Baltimore | Browser | Charles Miller | data | device | EXPLOIT | Flaw | fuzzing techniques | Hack | Hackers | Independent Security Evaluators | iPhone | Ise | Proof-of-Concept | safari | STEAL | Vulnerable

Sony profit more than triples on digicam, yen

Sony said on Thursday its quarterly profit more than tripled after strong digital camera sales and a softer yen far outstripped losses at its game unit.

Sony, in the final year of a three-year turnaround plan led by Chief Executive Howard Stringer, has seen its PlayStation 3 game console outsold by Nintendo's Wii since the two machines were launched late last year.

But Sony's Cyber-shot digital cameras were in strong demand. The electronics and entertainment conglomerate also benefited from a weaker yen and a firmer stock market, which has boosted earnings at its financial division.

Source: news.com.com

Tags: Console | Cyber-Shot | digicam | digital camera | electronics | Entertainment | Howard Stringer | Nintendo | Playstation | Profit | sales | sony | triples

Jessica Alba's phone break-up

Jessica Alba has split from boyfriend Cash Warren.

The Hollywood beauty reportedly called time on the couple's two-and-a-half year romance during an emotional telephone conversation, in which she told the movie producer she "didn't love him anymore".

After delivering the heart-breaking news last weekend, Jessica, 26, allegedly sent an aide to the Los Angeles home the couple shared to help Cash, 28, pack up his belongings and make sure he moved out.

Source: people.monstersandcritics.com

Tags: America | break-up | COUPLE | emotional | heart-breaking | hollywood | Jessica Alba | Los Angeles | Phone | Romance | telephone conversation

Digg signs advertising deal with Microsoft

Digg has signed a new advertising deal with a new advertising partner - Microsoft. The three year deal means that Microsoft will exclusively provide the display advertising and keyword targeted adverts on the Digg site.

Digg aggregates content from all over the internet, from tiny blogs to huge internet portals. Anything that is of interest to the community there will receive positive votes and will be promoted up the rankings. The variety of content that can be browsed through, coupled with the ability to vote for content you like, makes for an addictive user experience - leading to the site attracting 17 million unique users a month.

This is not an insignificant portion of the available ad audience. Microsoft is trying to gain market share in online advertising, and is especially keen to take revenue away from the market leader Google. And this many new users will only be a positive step for Microsoft.

Source: bigmouthmedia.com

Tags: Advertising | Digg | Microsoft | PARTNER

Lohan declares her innocence

Lindsay Lohan says she is innocent of driving under the influence and cocaine possession.

The actress was arrested early Tuesday in Santa Monica for investigation of felony cocaine possession and misdemeanour driving under the influence and with a suspended licence, less than two weeks after completing her second trip to rehab.

"I am innocent ... did not do drugs, they're not mine. I was almost hit by my assistant Tarin's mum I appreciate everyone giving me my privacy," the 21-year-old actress wrote in an email to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush, the show reported on its website Tuesday night.

Source: smh.com.au

Tags: actress | Billy Bush | Cocaine | driving | drugs | hollywood | influence | innocent | investigation | Lindsay Lohan | police | Santa Monica

FCC Leans Toward One-Third Plan for Open Access

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's plan to bring open access to one-third of the 700 MHz spectrum band, which will hit the auction block next January, appears to have the necessary support of two out of four commissioners. The plan is also backed by AT&T, which initially opposed any open access. It falls short of Google's request for total open access.

During a congressional hearing Tuesday before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, members of the Federal Communications Commission Latest News about Federal Communications Commission (FCC) came out in favor of a plan that would bring open access to one-third of the airwaves set for auction in January.

The 700 MHz band spectrum used by broadcast television stations will be available to the highest bidder once the switch to digital broadcasts takes place in February 2009. The FCC will auction off those soon-to-be-vacant airwaves in January 2008.

It was the first public indication of how the commissioners viewed the proposal put forth by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin two weeks ago.

Source: technewsworld.com

Tags: airwaves | broadcast | chairman | Digital | FCC | Federal Communications Commission | Google | internet | Kevin Martin | LEANS | one-third | open access | Pacific Research Institute | Purchase | Telecommunications

'Hundred-Dollar Laptop' Is Revolutionary, Amazing

One Laptop Per Child's XO (commonly referred to as the "$100 laptop") is designed to change the world by bringing computing resources to children in the developing world.

But the many innovations in the XO may also end up changing the world of technology.

When you first see the XO, the thought that immediately jumps to mind is "kid's toy."

Source: foxnews.com

Tags: computing | designed | developing | Hundred-Dollar | Laptop | Revolutionary

Don't be alarmed: 29,000 sex offenders on MySpace

There are about 600,000 convicted sex offenders in the United States. As of this month, 29,000 of them had profiles on MySpace.

The number comes from a group of state attorneys general who threatened MySpace with legal action if it didn't scrub its social network of registered sex offenders. In May, the company estimated that only 7,000 sex offenders had profiles on the site; the actual number, it found after deeper research, was four times as many.

MySpace has deleted the 29,000 profiles. But as Roy Cooper, North Carolina's attorney general, noted in a statement, MySpace can only associate sex offenders with profiles when the offenders use real names to set up their sites; there could be many other sex offender profiles the site doesn't know about.

Source: machinist.salon.com

Tags: Carolina | deleted | MySpace | profiles | sex offenders | United States

Silicon Knights sues Epic Games

Last August, rumors spread that Silicon Knights was ditching Unreal Engine 3 for its long-awaited Xbox 360 game Too Human, because the frequently licensed game engine supposedly ran poorly on Microsoft's console. Those rumors didn't last too long before Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack squashed them in a statement, saying rumors of the group "completely scrapping" the engine were false.

Despite Dyack's statement, those rumors appear to have been partially true, as revealed by Silicon Knights this week in a 54-page lawsuit it filed against Epic Games over Unreal Engine 3. In its complaint, the Ontario-based developer claims that it licensed the engine based on "false and misleading statements" from Epic. Silicon Knights said the Gears of War creator's contractual breaches forced it to begin making its own game engine last May, just before an underwhelming public debut of the Unreal-powered Too Human at the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Source: gamespot.com

Tags: Denis Dyack | Electronic Entertainment Expo | epic | gears of war | licensed | Ontario | rumors | Silicon Knights | statement | sues | Too Human | unreal | XBOX

Google Earnings Up 28% but Miss Expectations

The Internet search giant reported another quarter of rapid revenue growth on the strength of its core Internet search and advertising business Thursday, but expenses grew faster than investors had anticipated and profits fell short of analysts’ expectations.

Within minutes of Google’s announcement, which was made after the close of markets, disappointed investors sold off Google’s shares in after-hours trading, slashing their value by about $42, or more than 7 percent, to about $506. Shares of Google had risen steadily in recent weeks, in part, on speculation that the company, which does not provide guidance about its expected financial performance, would surpass Wall Street estimates.

“The company spent too much, as they said they might some day,” said Jordan Rohan, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets. “It wasn’t a bad quarter. It was a quarter where the analysts’ models need to be reset at a slightly lower level of profitability, and that hadn’t happened in a while.”

Source: nytimes.com

Tags: advertising business | disappointed | EARNINGS | Google | growth | guidance | internet | Investors | Jordan | performance | REVENUE | San Francisco | shares | speculation

Our new house

Web DJs silenced by royalty fees

From the attic of his condo in Woodbridge, Va., the 38-year-old Web developer ran an Internet radio station that spun his beloved Christmas carols all year long. Then in March, a panel of federal judges sharply increased the royalty charges for playing music online.

Since then, it's been one long, silent night for Clark and his hundreds of listeners at christmasmusic247.com. His site and hundreds of other free Internet radio stations already have shut down, and most others have said they will stop. The new rates became effective Sunday.

"It really isn't fair," said Clark, who pulled the plug when he realized he could owe more than $20,000 in royalties if he continued.

The decision threatens the diversity that webcasters bring to an era of large radio conglomerates and homogenized Top 40 playlists on many over-the-air stations. Each month an estimated 72 million listeners tune in to thousands of Internet radio stations programmed by devotees of every musical genre and subgenre.

Source: baltimoresun.com

Tags: developer | federal | increased charges | internet | judges | online | over-the-air | royalty fees | silenced | Web DJs | webcasters | Woodbridge

Slimmer PSP on its way

Sony launched its fight back against Nintendo in the portable gaming market by unveiling a slimmer, lighter PlayStation Portable at the E3 video game expo, the industry's biggest event.

Kazuo Hirai, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment said: "From a distance, this PSP might not look very different from the current model ... but when you have it in your hand, the difference becomes quite clear.

"It's actually 33 percent lighter than the current PSP. It's also 19 percent slimmer."

Source: channel4.com

Tags: Entertainment | Kazuo Hirai | lighter | Percent | Playstation | Portable | slimmer | sony

Microsoft movie downloads will harm DVD sales?

Concerns surrounding the future of DVD are arising this week following Microsoft’s E3 Business & Media Summit confirmation that its 120GB Xbox 360 Elite videogames console will be hitting European shores on August 24.

The Elite’s 120GB hard drive represents a massive storage jump from the 20GB Premium Xbox 360 currently available throughout Europe, and is to be the precursor to the arrival of Microsoft’s popular Video Marketplace download service.

Both the 120GB Elite and Video Marketplace are already available to Xbox 360 owners in the US, and Microsoft has now said it is immersed in talks regarding the integration of the download service for European audiences.

A Telegraph.co.uk article reports that the Video Marketplace would allow users to download movie (and television) content both quickly and cheaply, which could well have a detrimental effect on regular DVD sales and rentals.

Source: tech.monstersandcritics.com

Tags: Audiences | Business & Media Summit | cheaply | confirmation | Console | download | europe | harm | Integration | Microsoft | movie | PREMIUM | rentals | sales | Video Marketplace | videogames | XBOX

Microsoft movie downloads will harm DVD sales?

Concerns surrounding the future of DVD are arising this week following

Microsoft’s E3 Business & Media Summit confirmation that its 120GB

Xbox 360 Elite videogames console will be hitting European shores on

August 24.

The Elite’s 120GB hard drive represents a massive storage jump from

the 20GB Premium Xbox 360 currently available throughout Europe, and is

to be the precursor to the arrival of Microsoft’s popular Video

Marketplace download service.

Both the 120GB Elite and Video Marketplace are already available to

Xbox 360 owners in the US, and Microsoft has now said it is immersed in

talks regarding the integration of the download service for European

audiences.

A Telegraph.co.uk article reports that the Video Marketplace would

allow users to download movie (and television) content both quickly and

cheaply, which could well have a detrimental effect on regular DVD

sales and rentals.

Redmond-based Microsoft has said that it’s currently talking with

leading movie suppliers such as Disney, Paramount, and Warner Bros. in

order to secure plenty of Video Marketplace content prior to the

service’s official European launch – which is expected before the close

of 2007. The American software behemoth is also communicating with

television broadcasters (including the BBC) to widen the service’s

scope to popular TV programming too.

Door Installed (and it is not Windows :)

Check out the footages :)

Door Installed (and it is now Windows :)

Check out the footages :)

Door Installed (and it is now Windows :)

Check out the footages :)

Moonlight—Open Source Silverlight on Mono

We have many proponents of open source, cross platform software in the SitePoint community, and I think Microsoft have left some of us scratching our heads over where to stand after unveiling Silverlight and the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR).

Microsoft’s DLR is a layer on top of their Common Language Runtime (CLR), which provides support for dynamically typed languages such as Python, Ruby and JavaScript. The great news is that the DLR is released under Microsoft’s Permissive License—their way of saying open source. Microsoft’s .NET/DLR implementations of Python and Ruby, named IronPython and IronRuby respectively, are both covered by the same Permissive License as DLR.

Microsoft describes Silverlight as “a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web applications.” That all sounds great—cross platform, cross browser—but unfortunately it’s missing the magic words “open source”.

Even so, it’s hard not to be a bit excited about the prospect of a ubiquitous platform/plugin which brings together dynamic languages like Ruby, Python and JavaScript to the client side of the web. And with some of the vital components already open source, it should make it easier for somebody else to take it the rest of the way…

Twitter Recruiting Members for User Testing

Tabula Rasa, Medal of Honor: Airborne, and More

The very first role-playing game that I ever bought was Ultima IV for the Commodore 64, and ever since then I've been a huge fan of designer Richard Garriott, aka the legendary Lord British. In addition to the Ultima games, Lord British created the first major massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Ultima Online. Now Lord British and his team are putting the finishing touches on Tabula Rasa, a sci-fi MMORPG that's been in the works for over five years. We caught up with Lord British and producer Starr Long for the details.

Next up is Medal of Honor: Airborne, the next game in EA's World War II first-person shooter franchise. The really interesting thing about Airborne is the approach to the game. In most first-person shooters, you're just along for a tightly controlled ride that plays the same every single time. In Airborne, you can decide your ride, as you have control over where you land on the map, which has a huge impact on how the rest of the battle unfolds. To find out more, read our designer diary with the game's producer.

Tags:

• Richard Garriott


• Commodore 64


• ultima


• Medal of Honor


• world war II

Blogclient test story

We were on the scene in South Korea when Blizzard made its huge
announcement: Starcraft II is a go. And just like that, the GameSpot
forums pretty much went into meltdown over the first details,
screens, and videos of the game, which is the sequel to 1998's
legendary real-time strategy game. What do we know? All three
Starcraft races are back, and there apparently is no fourth race.
There are a bunch of new units and abilities, as well as a sparkling
new 3D graphics engine. But to get all the details, check out the
coverage on the site.

Meanwhile, what happens when two of the premier strategy game studios
on the planet team up? The answer is Age of Empires III: The Asian
Dynasties, the newly announced second expansion pack to 2005's
blockbuster real-time strategy game from Microsoft and creator
Ensemble Studios. However, the Asian Dynasties won't be made by
Ensemble, which is busy with a little game called Halo Wars. Instead,
Ensemble turned to fellow Microsoft-collaborator Big Huge Games,
creator of our 2003 PC Game of the Year, Rise of Nations and last
year's excellent Rise of Legends.

Tags:

• StarCraft


• Korea


• Microsoft


• Ensemble Studios


• Blizzard


• Age of Empires


• Asia

Blogclient test story

We were on the scene in South Korea when Blizzard made its huge
announcement: Starcraft II is a go. And just like that, the GameSpot
forums pretty much went into meltdown over the first details,
screens, and videos of the game, which is the sequel to 1998's
legendary real-time strategy game. What do we know? All three
Starcraft races are back, and there apparently is no fourth race.
There are a bunch of new units and abilities, as well as a sparkling
new 3D graphics engine. But to get all the details, check out the
coverage on the site.

Meanwhile, what happens when two of the premier strategy game studios
on the planet team up? The answer is Age of Empires III: The Asian
Dynasties, the newly announced second expansion pack to 2005's
blockbuster real-time strategy game from Microsoft and creator
Ensemble Studios. However, the Asian Dynasties won't be made by
Ensemble, which is busy with a little game called Halo Wars. Instead,
Ensemble turned to fellow Microsoft-collaborator Big Huge Games,
creator of our 2003 PC Game of the Year, Rise of Nations and last
year's excellent Rise of Legends.

Tags:

• StarCraft


• Korea


• Microsoft


• Ensemble Studios


• Blizzard


• Age of Empires


• Asia

Wireless power pulls plug on cables

POWER cables and plugs may soon become obsolete because scientists have developed a way to wirelessly charge electrical devices from a distance.

WiTricity can already power a lightbulb over a distance of 2m, and its inventors believe that within three to five years the system would be able to charge mobile phones, laptops, MP3 players and other electronic devices.

The appliances would only need to be within range of a WiTricity transmitter to work.

Professor Marin Soljacic, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that wireless electricity could eventually replace most power cables, in the same way that mobile and cordless phones had supplanted landlines.

“Once, when my son was about three years old, we visited his grandparents’ house,” said Professor Soljacic, whose results are published in the journal Science. “They had a 20-year-old phone and my son picked up the handset, asking, ‘Dad, why is this phone attached with a cord to the wall?’

Source: theaustralian.news.com.au

Tags: %% | Massachusetts | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Technology | wireless | cables | cordless | ELECTRONIC | inventors | laptops | MOBILE PHONE | obsolete | Plug | published | SCIENTISTS

Paris Hilton Ordered to Return to Court

The hotel heiress was headed for a courtroom showdown Friday that could put her back behind bars, as prosecutors sought to hold sheriff's officials in contempt for releasing her early from jail.

Hilton was ordered to report to court at 9 a.m. and will be brought in a sheriff's vehicle from her Hollywood Hills home, said Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini.

The frenzy began early Thursday when sheriff's officials released Hilton because of an undisclosed medical condition and sent her home under house arrest. She had been in jail for three days.

Source: washingtonpost.com

Tags: Angeles | %% | court | hollywood | Paris Hilton | PARIS_HILTON | People | superior | arrest | Jail | judge | officials | reckless-driving | sheriff | showdown | violating

Security Companies Blast Each Other With Patent Infringement Lawsuits

Computer security companies Secure Computing Corp. and Finjan Software, Ltd. are hurling lawsuits at each other over a patent dispute.

According to Finjan, the lawsuits relate to systems and methods used to protect computers and networks from hostile downloads and malicious code.

Secure Computing, an enterprise gateway security company, seemingly struck the first blow on Wednesday, filing a patent infringement and unfair competition lawsuit against Finjan, a Web security company, in the U.S. District Court in Minnesota. On Thursday, Finjan filed its own patent infringement lawsuit against Secure Computing and its subsidiaries, CyberGuard and WebWasher in U.S, District Court in Delaware.

In response to Finjan's move, Secure Computing, which claims it holds 80 patents worldwide, also filed patent infringement counterclaims against Finjan in Delaware.

Source: informationweek.com

Tags: blast | Computer | court | Delaware | District | infringement | Minnesota | Patent | SECURE | Technology | thursday | filed | lawsuit | subsidiaries | CyberGuard | Finjan | WebWasher