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Medicine

Bionic Implants and Spectrum Clash 98

angry tapir writes "The battle over scarce radio spectrum that has embroiled the mobile broadband world even extends to a little-known type of wireless network that promises to reconnect the human nervous system with paralyzed limbs. At its monthly meeting next week, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission will consider whether four sets of frequencies between 413MHz and 457MHz can be used by networks of sensors implanted in patients who suffer from various forms of paralysis. One intended purpose of these MMNS (medical micropower network systems) is to transmit movement commands from a sensor on a patient's spinal cord, through a wearable MCU (master control unit), to implants that electrically stimulate nerves."
Networking

Verizon Announces Pay-Per-Use 'Turbo Boost' For Smartphones 129

renek writes "In one of the most brazen attacks on net neutrality to date, Verizon has announced it will offer a so called 'Turbo Boost' for smart phones that run on its wireless network. 'Verizon will publish an API that could allow consumers to 'turbocharge' the network bandwidth their smartphone apps use for a small fee, executives said Tuesday. Verizon anticipates that a customer running an app on a smartphone will have the option to dynamically snatch more bandwidth for that app, if network congestion slows it down, said Hugh Fletcher, associate director for technology in Verizon's Product Development and Technology team. The app, however, must be running what Verizon referred to as the network optimization API it is currently developing, and hopes to publish by the third quarter of 2012.'"
Businesses

Why Microsoft Embraced Gaming 146

wjousts writes "A interesting take on the birth of the Xbox from Technology Review: 'When the original Xbox video-game console went on sale in 2001, it wasn't clear why Microsoft, known for staid workplace software, was branching out into fast-paced action games. But Microsoft decided that capitalizing on the popularity of gaming could help the company position itself for the coming wave of home digital entertainment. "Microsoft saw the writing on the wall," says David Dennis, a spokesman for Xbox. "It wanted to have a beachhead in the living room." ... Now Microsoft is linking Xbox 360, its most successful consumer-focused brand, with others that have not been as well received. It is integrating Bing, its search engine, into Xbox and Xbox Live to enable people to search for multimedia content. By the end of the year, Microsoft is expected to unveil an updated Xbox Live design that is more in line with the look of Windows phones and the forthcoming Windows 8.'"

Comment totalitarianism building up (Score 1) 277

What about TSA x-ray naked scanners - shouldn't TSA agents be jailed for child pornography?
Shouldn't gov stop this first before going spying on everyone without a warrant like in a totalitarian regime?

All this gives them is the ability to see who is criticizing the gov.
And who he talked to.
1984, here we come ...

Today they spy all because some people may be bad...
Tomorrow they'll start arresting people because gov thought they thought of committing a crime...

Comment Re:RDS astroturf for the First Post Win? (Score 1) 353

You are a bit naive.
Any time law enforcement or a company wants the info, all they need to do is tell Apple to install the "real-time" reporting app over the air.
Or maybe the "feature" is already a service of the OS just not activated - a single SMS may turn it on.

Btw, it will not only start tracking from time of activation, it will report all previous history since you bought the phone.

All this is speculation but that is the point - what is possible because all of the history is stored without your control.

What if your boss asks you for your logs while you were sick. You can't refuse cause he knows you have the logs. (of course you shouldn't work for a boss like that in the first place...) You can't say I deleted it cause you can't delete it ;)

Comment Re:Consensus? (Score 1) 226

Actually, Comcast already can do this as they monitor the traffic in a month - They have put a cap of 250 GB per month after which they cut you off.

Also charging per MB or GB is already done/supported by most cell phone carriers - ATT, Verison, ...
It also reminds me of dial-up pricing...

However, ISPs love to offer you "premium" unlimited service and then oversell it.

Comment Re:Java GPL? (Score 1) 675

J2se is. J2me is not. That's three problem that Google faces.

Android doesn't implement/use/extend J2ME. Only J2SE classes are included.

I guess the main claim Oracle has is that Google should have used and licensed J2ME on mobile devices.
Instead, Google implemented and extended J2SE.

J2SE was way too heavy for mobile devices before Google came in. That is way many phone manufacturers used J2ME instead.
J2ME was such a pain to program for compared to J2SE.

I don't see how Oracle can force a manufacturer where to use J2SE.
Since phones are just computers with VOIP/phone application, I don't see a problem using J2SE on them.

What makes a phone different from desktop - detached screen? From a laptop - folding screen? From a tablet...?

Image

Firefighters Let House Burn Because Owner Didn't Pay Fee Screenshot-sm 2058

Dthief writes "From MSNBC: 'Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee. Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in the Sept. 29 fire, along with three dogs and a cat. "They could have been saved if they had put water on it, but they didn't do it," Cranick told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. The fire started when the Cranicks' grandson was burning trash near the family home. As it grew out of control, the Cranicks called 911, but the fire department from the nearby city of South Fulton would not respond.'"
Image

3 Drinks a Day Keeps the Doctor Away Screenshot-sm 470

Nzimmer911 writes "Heavy drinkers outlive non-drinkers according to a 20 years study following 1,824 people. From the article: 'But a new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggests that - for reasons that aren't entirely clear - abstaining from alcohol does actually tend to increase one's risk of dying even when you exclude former drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers' mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers.'"
Google

Google Officially Brings Voice To Gmail 179

siliconbits writes "Google has finally added voice support to its popular Gmail email service which means that users will soon be able to call landlines and mobiles worldwide for free or for extremely low prices. The announcement was made at a press conference in San Francisco in front of a few selected press members."
Privacy

GPS Tracking Without a Warrant Declared Legal 926

jnaujok writes "The Ninth Circuit court has declared that attaching a GPS tracker to your car, as it sits in your driveway, or by extension on a public street, and then using it to monitor every one of your movements, is totally legal, and can be performed by the police without needing a warrant. So, if you live in the Western United States, big brother has arrived."
Security

1978 Cryptosystem Resists Quantum Attack 185

KentuckyFC writes "In 1978, the CalTech mathematician Robert McEliece developed a cryptosystem based on the (then) new idea of using asymmetric mathematical functions to create different keys for encrypting and decrypting information. The security of these systems relies on mathematical steps that are easy to make in one direction but hard to do in the other. Today, popular encryption systems such as the RSA algorithm use exactly this idea. But in 1994, the mathematician Peter Shor dreamt up a quantum algorithm that could factorise much faster than any classical counterpart and so can break these codes. As soon as the first decent-sized quantum computer is switched on, these codes will become breakable. Since then, cryptographers have been hunting for encryption systems that will be safe in the post quantum world. Now a group of mathematicians have shown that the McEliece encryption system is safe against attack by Shor's algorithm and all other known quantum algorithms. That's because it does not depend on factorisation but gets its security from another asymmetric conundrum known as the hidden subgroup problem which they show is immune to all known quantum attacks."

Comment Re:no exceptions for wireless! (Score 1) 254

While prioritizing may be needed for wireless in general, it should be based on classes of services, like real-time services (VOIP) and non-real-time (SMS, HTTP, u-tube).

But you cannot prioritize based on companies or content providers. Like in your example, why a bank website should be more important than any other website?
Or why Chase website to be faster than WaMu website?
They must guarantee traffic is owner neutral - that my VOIP has same priority as Verizon VOIP.

What's preventing Verizon dropping packets of Vonage/Skype VOIP so Verizon phones "seem" to have better quality?
Or dropping connection every 1-2 minutes like Comcast did (with bit-torrent sites)...

Like currently, Skype is available on Android only for Verizon, and only over 3g (no WiFi)

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