39515313
submission
DJRumpy writes:
"The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has made a formal recommendation to its commissioners to sue Google for violation of antitrust laws after the search giant attempted to block the sale of competitors' products using standards essential patents.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the recommendation to sue Google must still be approved by a majority of the agency's five commissioners. The report noted, however, that the majority are already "inclined to sue," but aren't likely to act until after the U.S. presidential election next week.
In July, the FTC began a civil investigation into Google's efforts to block competitors over standards patents already committed to so called "Fair, Reasonable and Nondiscriminatory" licensing. "
39512735
submission
hackingbear writes:
Pointing to China’s plummeting birth rate and numerous impending demographic imbalances in arguing that the one-child policy has outlived its usefulness, a think tank affiliated with China’s State Council issued a report saying the country should start loosening one-child restrictions in areas where controls have been strictest as a prelude to eventually doing away with child limits altogether by 2020. Chinese family planning authorities credit the one-child policy with preventing around 400 million births, but concerns over the economic implications of China’s rapidly aging population, a widening gender imbalance and growing rights consciousness have led increasing numbers of academics and regular citizens to openly question the policy, which is sometimes enforced in brutal ways. Citizens, however, express split views on this plan through online forums (in Chinese); some calling for faster termination of the policy while others argue the country still have too many people.
39512427
submission
MatthewVD writes:
The National Hurricane Center reported today that the combined energy and duration of all the storms in the Atlantic basin hurricane season was 30 percent above the average from 1981 to 2010. In the Weather Underground, Jeff Masters blogs that record low levels of arctic ice caused the "Greenland blocking" that pushed Hurricane Sandy west. As Bloomberg Businessweek notes, "it's global warming, stupid."
39509383
submission
terrancem writes:
The Kihansi Spray Toad went extinct in the wild in 2005 when its habitat in Tanzania was destroyed by a dam. However conservationists at the Bronx Zoo managed to maintain a captive population which is now large enough to allow a bold experiment to move forward: reintroducing the toad into its old habitat. To make the once tropical gorge moist again, engineers have designed an artificial misting system that should allow toads to survive in the wild. The effort marks what may be the first time conservationists have ever re-established an "extinct" species in a human-engineered ecosystem.
39508943
submission
Penurious Penguin writes:
While not quite as epic or bitter as losing 600 barrels of maple syrup — in two separate heists, 80,000lbs of walnuts have been stolen in Northern California since last week. The heist was discovered after the walnuts failed to reach their destinations in Miami, FL and Dallas, TX. If you happen to see a large man (approximately 6' 2") driving a white semi-trailer and munching on $300,000 worth of walnuts, it may be the villain. Officers with highly trained squirrels have yet to be posted at interstate weigh-stations.
39507867
submission
spaceyhackerlady writes:
We're looking at some new development, and a big question mark is the little boxes around the edge of the data centre — the NTP servers, the monitoring boxes, the stuff that supports and interfaces with the Big Iron that does the real work.
The last time I visited a hosting farm I saw shelves of Mac Minis, but that was 5 years ago. What do people like now for their little support boxes?
39506683
submission
An anonymous reader writes:
Windows 8 was released late last week, and already this week French security firm VUPEN says it has broken Microsoft’s latest and greatest security features. The company claims it has developed a 0-day exploit for Windows 8 and IE10, by chaining multiple undisclosed flaws together.
39505539
submission
GrimAndBearIt writes:
NASA's Curiosity rover is poised to settle years of debate on the question of atmospheric methane on Mars, which would be a sign of microbial life. With parts per trillion sensitivity, it's not so much a question of whether the rover will be able to smell trace amounts of methane, but rather a question of how much.
NASA has announced that Grotzinger’s team will discuss atmospheric measurements at a briefing on 2 November. If the rover has detected methane at sufficiently high concentration, or exhibiting temporal variations of the kind that suggests microbial activity, then it will surely motivate a desire to identify and map the sources.
39504713
submission
An anonymous reader writes:
Atlantic tropical storms mostly tear through the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, and lose energy as they pass over the U.S mainland. However, Hurricane Sandy crept along the Eastern Seaboard, where waters that were warmer than usual for this time of year and that kept the storm alive and kicking. As the storm moved northward, it became a hybrid storm, drawing strength from the differential between the storm's warm air and cold northern air from the jet stream.
39504061
submission
slas6654 writes:
FTA: "Approximately 16 of the $100,000+ Fisker Karma extended-range luxury hybrids were parked in Port Newark, New Jersey last night when water from Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge apparently breached the port and submerged the vehicles. As Jalopnik has exclusively learned, the cars then caught fire and burned to the ground."
Apparently Fiskar super-duty lithium ion batteries are neither water-proof or water soluble.
39503523
submission
Velcroman1 writes:
Slashdotters have been reading for months about the upcoming ITU conference next month in Dubai, which will propose new regulations and restrictions for the Internet that critics say could censor free speech, levy tariffs on e-commerce, and even force companies to clean up their “e-waste” and make gadgets that are better for the environment. Concerns about the closed-door event have sparked a Wikileaks-style info-leaking site, and led the State Department on Wednesday to file a series of new proposals or tranches seeking to ensure “competition and commercial agreements — and not regulation” as the meeting's main message. Terry Kramer, the chief U.S. envoy to the conference, says the United States is against sanctions. “[Doing nothing] would not be a terrible outcome at all,” Kramer said recently.
39502377
submission
theodp writes:
People seem to be okay with constant corporate or government video surveillance in public. Let a lone individual point a video camera their way, however, and tempers flare. GeekWire takes a look at the antics and videos of Seattle's mysterious Surveillance Camera Man, who walks up to people and records them for no apparent reason other than to make a point: How is what he’s doing different than those stationary surveillance cameras tucked away in buildings and public places?
39502093
submission
jones_supa writes:
At Overclock.net forums, nickname channelx99 tells a story about a frustrating obstacle when he begun to use a Razer Naga mouse. A software is required to enable the full functionality of the mouse. The user was greeted by a login screen which couldn't be bypassed, and even worse, the account creation didn't work at the time. It turned out that the Razor activation server was down. As result, channelx99 was left out in the cold, and he wraps up 'Nowhere on the box does it say anything about needing an internet connection to "activate" a mouse. If the servers go down in the future, anyone who buys this mouse is out of luck.'
39501623
submission
monkeyguru writes:
Twitter's revealed the technology it uses to push real time data updates to its users.
