34716939
submission
TroysBucket writes:
One developer who is trying to fund his development work via donations has taken on an "Everyone gets the source code, Donations get you binaries" business model, where he provides installers and binaries directly only to donating users. Anyone seen this work well before with other projects?
34715043
submission
Nate the greatest writes:
It looks like the little guy is going to win this round. Kobo has just announced that starting next week they'll be taking pre-orders for a Japanese language version of the Kobo Touch. It's going to sell for around $100 USD and yes it will support Japanese. The new Kobo Touch will be getting a firmware update to add support for Epub3, the new ebook format which was only finalized earlier this year. Kobo will be shipping the Kobo Touch in Japan when the local Kobo store opens on 19 July, and that means they may beat Amazon to the punch. The Japanese Kindle has only been hinted at, with Amazon offering to let people sign up to be notified.
34713629
submission
Dr. Eggman writes:
If don't recall, then Broadband/DSL Reports is here to remind us that ISPs around the US will begin adhering to the RIAA/MPAA-fueled "Six Strikes" agreement on July 1st. Or is July 12th? Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and Cablevision are all counted among the participants. They will each introduce "mitigation measures" against suspected pirates, including: throttling down connection speeds and suspending Web access.
34709607
submission
thomst writes:
Rob Coppinger of Space.com reports that UK-based private company Excalibur Almaz plans to offer commercial lunar-orbital tourist missions based on recycled Soviet-era Soyuz vehicle and Salyut space stations, using Hall Effect thrusters to power the ensemble from Earth orbit to the Moon and back. The company estimates ticket prices at $150 million per seat (with a 50% profit margin), and expects to sell about 30 of them. Excalibur Almaz has other big plans, too, including ISS crew transport, LaGrange Point scientific missions, and Lunar surface payload deliveries. It expects to launch its first tourist trip to the Moon in 2014.
34708145
submission
theodp writes:
Appearing on The Colbert Report this week to talk about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s new initiative to make contraceptives more widely available in developing nations, Melinda Gates laughed off the jabs of cantankerous faux right-winger Colbert. "It’s a wildly controversial stance because you know from the culture wars in the United States, if you are in favor of contraception you are automatically a slut," Colbert said. "Aren’t you afraid that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be thought of as a slut factory?" On a more serious note, a real threat to Gates' crusade to revolutionize contraception worldwide — which Melinda says should be 'totally uncontroversial' — is coming from the Catholic right, which excoriated her first public speech on the issue at a TEDxChange conference in early April.
34705627
submission
darthcamaro writes:
You don't really buy an open source company — since the tech is all open. But then again Red Hat 'buys' open source companies all the time, they just bought one this week. So when does it makes sense for Red Hat to buy a company versus just building it on their own? Apparently it all comes to community."When you buy an open source company, if the people aren't coming and passionate about staying then you spend a lot of money for what? Because you don't get a lot of intellectual property," Red Hat CEO, Jim Whitehurst said.
34704361
submission
schwit1 writes:
Delaware became the first state to enter the realm of legal online casino gambling Thursday with the governor's approval of legislation that allows for full-service betting websites offering slots play and games like roulette, poker and blackjack.
Federal law limits online gambling to players within the state's borders, which will be verified using geolocation software.
The state hopes to launch online gambling in 2013 and intends to make betting available on a variety of digital devices including smart phones and tablets.
34703771
submission
mikejuk writes:
Using reinforcement learning to make a computer paint like an oriental Sumi-e artist isn't just a matter of shouting "well done" — and yet when you look at the results that's what you want to do...
Three researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have attempted to teach a computer how to do it using standard reinforcement learning. When the program used the brush to create a smooth stroke then it was rewarded. After it had learned to use the brush it was set to rendering some photos and the results look very good — one even looks like a sketch from Angry Birds but I'm sure this is a cultural thing...
