JetLib News

Jon Brodkin writes “The Wii U has been out for two weeks, with most of the attention naturally focusing on the console’s tablet-y GamePad and blockbuster titles such as New Super Mario Bros. U and Assassin’s Creed 3. But $60 games aren’t the only draw on Nintendo’s new system. There are exactly five games on the Nintendo eShop for $20 or less: Nano Assault Neo., Little Inferno., Mighty Switch Force! Hyper Drive Edition., Chasing Aurora., and Trine 2: Director’s Cut.. You could call most or all of these indie games, depending on your definition of an independent developer.” Read below for the rest of Jon’s review.

SternisheFan sends this quote from ZDNet: “Mozilla has opened its Firefox Marketplace, with Android device owners and developers getting the first access to the browser’s app store. The access arrived on Thursday, in the release of the latest ‘Aurora’ build of Firefox for Android. Aurora is meant for developers and early adopters, as it is the test stream of Mozilla’s browser. The storefront lets people find and install web applications delivered via the browser, and gives developers a place to publicize their apps. ‘We’re hoping that Aurora users, our awesome early adopters, will go experience the Firefox Marketplace on their Android phones and let us know what they think,’ Mozilla Labs engineering manager Bill Walker said in a blog post. ‘Our goal is to collect as much real-life feedback as possible about the Marketplace’s design, usability, performance, reliability, and content.’ … Mozilla said it expects to follow with a Marketplace for the Firefox browser beta and Firefox OS launches next year.”

New submitter trokez writes “Symantec has monitored the activities of a group using a specific trojan (Hydraq/Aurora) since 2009. The particular group has been connected (by Symantec) to the attack on Gmail in China, but also other high-profile attacks. ‘These attackers have used a large number of zero-day exploits against not just the intended target organization, but also on the supply chain manufacturers that service the company in their cross hairs. These attackers are systematic and re-use components of an infrastructure we have termed the “Elderwood Platform.” The term “Elderwood” comes from the exploit communication used in some of the attacks. This attack platform enables them to quickly deploy zero-day exploits.’ The attacks seems to focus on industry espionage, with the defense industry and its suppliers at the focus.”

sl4shd0rk writes “Chris Double of the Mozilla developer team has (H.264, AAC and MP3) working with the Android version of Firefox on a Nexus S handset. Although a preliminary patch, it looks like it is on track to be included in Firefox 17, which will enter the Aurora channel at the end of the month. It will be some time before being made available to users, so hang in there. A very welcome addition. Thanks Chris!”

bs0d3 writes “According to this article printed in tagesspiegel.de, not having a Facebook account could be the first sign that you are a mass murderer.(German) As examples they use Norwegian shooter Anders Breivik, who used MySpace instead of Facebook and the newer Aurora shooter who used adultfriendfinder instead of Facebook. They already consider those with Facebook accounts, who lack friends to be suspicious, but now they are suggesting that anyone who abstains from Facebook altogether may be even more suspicious. While it is already established that sites like Facebook and google+ are no good for political activists, abuse survivors, and people in the witness protection program; abuse survivors will have to take a back seat while more and more insane articles like this come out. This line of thinking could sure help Facebook’s stock value.”

beaverdownunder sends the sad news that a gunman opened fire on an audience watching the new Batman movie early this morning, killing 12 and wounding 50 others. The shooting took place in Aurora, Colorado, and the suspect was arrested by police. “Witnesses told KUSA that the gunman kicked in an emergency exit door and threw a smoke bomb into the darkened theater before opening fire. One movie-goer, who was not identified, told KUSA the gunman was wearing a gas mask. Some people in the audience thought the thick smoke and gunfire was a special effect accompanying the movie, police and witnesses said.”

beaverdownunder sends the sad news that a gunman opened fire on an audience watching the new Batman movie early this morning, killing 12 and wounding 50 others. The shooting took place in Aurora, Colorado, and the suspect was arrested by police. “Witnesses told KUSA that the gunman kicked in an emergency exit door and threw a smoke bomb into the darkened theater before opening fire. One movie-goer, who was not identified, told KUSA the gunman was wearing a gas mask. Some people in the audience thought the thick smoke and gunfire was a special effect accompanying the movie, police and witnesses said.”

Alex Rivest has created one of the most visually riveting videos we’ve seen. Alex says, “In looking at the pictures taken from the International Space Station of the earth at night, I find my attention drawn to that thin line separating earth from space: Our atmosphere.” He also says, “A good photograph is one that sparks a question.” Since this video runs at 30 (really 29.97) frames per second, and it’s about 290 seconds long, that’s close to 8700 questions. Luckily, Alex has written a blog post that answers most of them. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy his work for its sheer beauty. Or that you shouldn’t wish Alex well in his attempt to get into NASA’s 2013 Astronaut Candidate Class. A fine art photographer who also has a PhD in Neuroscience from MIT… what better qualifications could there possibly be for astronauthood?

StormDriver writes “Firefox 15 has hit the Mozilla pre-beta Aurora channel, and it features a redesigned, built-in debugger.” The original weblog post has more. Thanks to improved debugger internals in SpiderMonkey, supposedly code should run just as fast with debugging enabled as without (ever try loading Slashdot with firebug accidentally enabled?). There are also new tools for testing mobile layouts from the comfort of your workstation, and the debugger can attach to remote processes (Something Emacs users have enjoyed for years now, albeit in a hackish manner and without support for mobile Firefox).

Trailrunner7 writes “Google, whose users have been frequent targets of suspected attacks by foreign governments, is deploying a new warning system for users who may be victims of those kinds of attacks. The new system is in addition to existing warnings that Google will show Gmail users when their accounts may have been accessed by attackers. Gmail users have been on the receiving end of a number of known attacks, including the infamous Google Aurora attack that has been blamed on China. Part of that operation was aimed at a specific subset of Gmail users, including Chinese dissidents and journalists. Now, Google says it will warn users about exactly that kind of activity.”