Interview: Facebook engineering VP talks Connect

We had a chance to chat with Facebook's Mike Schroepfer, VP of Engineering, who came over from Mozilla in August. Topics included everything from open source, to Facebook Connect's impact on the web, to getting stopped in airport security lines.

December 04, 2008 - 11:30PM CT - by David Chartier

Editorial: Does Amazon's iPhone app go too far?

Amazon's new iPhone app encourages people to use it for comparison shopping, even when in retail stores, and for snapping pics of other people's clothing in public. Too much of a good thing or the future of shopping?

December 04, 2008 - 09:35PM CT - by Nate Anderson

Python 3.0 slithers onto scene, sheds backward compatibility

Python 3.0 has been officially released. This major update sacrifices backwards compatibility, but brings many significant improvements. Ars takes a close look at some of the new features.

December 04, 2008 - 08:30PM CT - by Ryan Paul

A $100 Midget PC at the local dollar store? Not so fast

One of the hot items of the last few days has been Coby Electronics supposed plan to enter the netbook market with the Midget PC—supposedly a smaller netbook with a Chinese CPU inside. but there are some serious holes in the story. There is a company interested in bringing a Chinese-powered notebook to market—but it isn't Coby.

December 04, 2008 - 07:26PM CT - by Joel Hruska

Is the last mile of fiber-to-the-node the future of BPL?

A firm that sells BPL gear agrees that BPL isn't the right solution. Or do they? It likes a fiber/BPL hybrid that the company just happens to have ready to offer.

December 04, 2008 - 06:15PM CT - by Glenn Fleishman

Google Friend Connect launches, eyes Facebook Connect

It's a social day for web giants during a social season. Not content to let Facebook Connect hog the spotlight, Google has announced the public availability of Friend Connect, its similar, standards-based platform for single sign-on convenience and making it easy to bring social networking to the rest of the web.

December 04, 2008 - 04:14PM CT - by David Chartier

FBI: widespread copper theft puts US infrastructure at risk

The FBI has released a brief report describing the risk to the US infrastructure posed by thieves who target the copper that makes up much of our piping and wiring. The problem seems to be that stealing copper creates damages far out of proportion to the price of the material.

December 04, 2008 - 03:08PM CT - by John Timmer

Facebook Connect goes live to one and all

Facebook's new service that allows users to sign into third-party sites and share profile information and activity is now live, available to any third-party developer or website owner who follows a strict set of data retention policies. The web is about to get a lot more social.

December 04, 2008 - 02:21PM CT - by David Chartier

Police: sibs hacked PC, used GPS to track—and maybe kill—father

Parents have generally been granted permission to monitor their children's location through GPS tracking, but what happens when the younger generation turns the tables, and then doesn't like what it finds? Nothing good, at least not here.

December 04, 2008 - 01:58PM CT - by Joel Hruska

Internet Governance Forum can't even set up Listserv right

With the Internet Governance Forum jockeying with ICANN and the ITU for decision-making authority over the Internet, setting up a listserv incorrectly and enraging journalists isn't helpful to the cause.

December 04, 2008 - 12:33PM CT - by Nate Anderson

Sprint-Cogent fight reveals fragility of 'Net infrastructure

As details emerge, it appears that small profits, corporate neglect, and executive egos all played a role in causing a major Internet outage for customers of Sprint and Cogent when the two engaged in a trial separation at the end of October.

December 04, 2008 - 11:58AM CT - by John Timmer

Hands-on: OpenSolaris 2008.11 a major step forward for Sun

Sun has released the second major version of OpenSolaris, a community-driven desktop-oriented distribution built on open source Solaris technology. The new release isn't capable of replacing Linux yet, but it has a lot of potential.

December 04, 2008 - 11:25AM CT - by Ryan Paul

Apple, RIM winners in shrinking smartphone market

The latest smartphone sales figures show how quickly the iPhone has caught on, as Apple is now number three in sales, and the iPhone OS passed Windows Mobile in market share during the third quarter of 2008. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion was the other big winner, while Nokia suffered.

December 04, 2008 - 10:53AM CT - by David Chartier

G1 bootloader dumped: big step forward for G1 jailbreakers

Ars has learned that jailbreakers have successfully dumped the G1 bootloader. Learn why that's important to the G1 jailbreak community.

December 04, 2008 - 10:20AM CT - by Erica Sadun

Blame Canada? Great White North called a spam haven

The fact that Facebook's recent lawsuit victory over spammer Adam Guerbuez was prosecuted in California rather than Canada sheds light on how weak Canada's antispam laws are—or so some argue. Does our northern neighbor need a CAN-SPAM of its own?

December 04, 2008 - 05:15AM CT - by Joel Hruska

The 2008 Ovatio Awards, by Ars Technica

Ars Technica surveys the year in tech, and separates the losers from the winners. Don't miss the 2008 Ovatio Awards, by the staff of Ars Technica.

December 03, 2008 - 11:30PM CT - by Ars Staff

Nokia's OSS strategy gets boost as Symbian deal completed

Nokia has completed its acquisition of mobile platform company Symbian. The acquisition will enable Nokia to move forward with its open source software strategy.

December 03, 2008 - 10:35PM CT - by Ryan Paul

Study shows promise for placebos as personalized medicine

The promise of personalized medicine is that we can tailor therapies to individuals based on a knowledge of their genetics. A new study suggests the same applies to placeboes.

December 03, 2008 - 10:11PM CT - by John Timmer