OSNews

"Microsoft has greatly improved its Windows 8 multiple monitor support in the Consumer Preview version of the operating system, but the company has fine tuned this even more with the upcoming Release Preview. Mark Yalovsky, a member of Microsoft's User Experience team, has taken to the company's Building Windows 8 blog to detail a number of important improvements in the Release Preview, including improved mouse targeting on shared edges and the ability to launch Metro apps on any monitor. Although the post in question has been mysteriously removed by Microsoft, we managed to secure the details thanks to a Google cached version." Very welcome.

"Production is set to begin next month for the screens, which measure at least 4 inches diagonally compared with 3.5 inches on the iPhone 4S, the latest phone from Apple, the people said." Cue the usual suspects twisting and turning to change the very fabric of space-time so that instead of 3.5" being the optimal size, 4.0" will be the optimal size. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

"Google plans to give multiple mobile-device makers early access to new releases of Android and to sell those devices directly to consumers, said people familiar with the matter. [...] The expansion of direct sales marks a bid to exert more control over key features and apps that run on Android-powered phones and tablets, thus reducing the influence of wireless carriers over such devices, these people said. Wireless carriers typically handle marketing and sales of devices and thus can exert some control over the services that run on them." So, an expanded Nexus program that includes several smartphones and tablets without crapware. Sounds good.

A bit of a fascinating little surprise in the Oracle vs. Google proceedings yesterday. As it turns out, judge Alsup... Has done, and still does, a lot of programming, and hence, he knows just how silly the whole rangeChek issue is. Addressing Oracle's lawyer, Alsup notes: "I couldn't have told you the first thing about Java before this problem. I have done, and still do, a significant amount of programming in other languages. I've written blocks of code like rangeCheck a hundred times before. I could do it, you could do it. The idea that someone would copy that when they could do it themselves just as fast, it was an accident. There's no way you could say that was speeding them along to the marketplace. You're one of the best lawyers in America, how could you even make that kind of argument?" Ouch.

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"If Judge William Alsup rules that APIs are subject to copyrights, he would overturn common wisdom in programming circles, potentially exposing many companies and developers who have built software platforms that openly mimic existing APIs. But that's not all. Such a ruling could shake things up for many other companies across the programming world and beyond." The fact we even have to worry about this speaks volumes about the state of the industry.

"As the Raspberry Pi started to ship the Sinclair ZX Spectrum turned 30 years old, and comparisons were being made between the two and their role in providing access to affordable computer hardware. Given the phenomenal advances in computing since the birth of the ZX Spectrum, I thought it might be fun to compare the Raspberry Pi with a computer that was closer to the state of the art at around that time, and to see if the Raspberry Pi could fill its shoes..."

One million copies sold in 5 days, $20 million in sales. People have already sunk 5.2 million hours into the game, including 2.4 million hours in 4 million multiplayer games. Minecraft on the Xbox 360 is yet another massive success. Pretty amazing. Coincidentally, I'm kind of done with Minecraft single player (on the PC, that is). Anybody here running a decent survival multiplayer server with mods (levelling, economy, etc.)?

"I think that Apple could be just as strong and good and be open, but how can you challenge it when a company is making that much money?", Wozniak told a crowd in Sydney, according to ITNews. They'd score so many brownie points the internet would explode.

"This week yet another court order was handed down in Europe with the aim of censoring The Pirate Bay. The ruling forbids the Dutch Pirate Party from not only running a direct proxy, but also telling people how to circumvent an earlier court ordered blockade. However, according to Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge, the judge in the case has a history of corruption relating to another file-sharing case he presided over in the Netherlands." This news has knocked me off my chair in disbelief that something like this could happen in The Netherlands. Yes, that was quite obviously sarcasm.