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Comment Seems like a batch issue (Score 0) 282

by bdrewery (#32721628) Attached to: iOS Update May Tackle iPhone 4's Antenna Problems
I went down to my local apple store and tested out 9 iPhone 4s. Of those 9, 4 showed the problem, while 5 were perfectly fine. The test was to place my thumb on the lower left spot, thus "shorting" the two antennas. I repeated my test on each one multiple times and it was consistent. This leads me to believe it's a production batch issue and not any of the other theories being floated around.
Any software fix will only be covering up the problem.
Of course, who doesn't use a case though?
Earth

A Warming Planet Can Mean More Snow 1136

Posted by kdawson from the black-ice-and-white dept.
Ponca City, We love you writes "NPR reports that with snow blanketing much of the country, the topic of global warming has become the butt of jokes; but for scientists who study the climate, there's no contradiction between a warming world and lots of snow. 'The fact that the oceans are warmer now than they were, say, 30 years ago means there's about on average 4 percent more water vapor lurking around over the oceans than there was... in the 1970s,' says Kevin Trenberth, a prominent climate scientist. 'So one of the consequences of a warming ocean near a coastline like the East Coast and Washington, DC, for instance, is that you can get dumped on with more snow partly as a consequence of global warming.' Increased snowfall also fits a pattern suggested by many climate models, in which rising temperatures increase the amount of atmospheric moisture, bringing more rain in warmer conditions and more snow in freezing temperatures."
Patents

Google Patents Country-Specific Content Blocking 106

Posted by Soulskill from the two-steps-forward-one-step-back dept.
theodp writes "Today Google was awarded US Patent No. 7,664,751 for its invention of Variable User Interface Based on Document Access Privileges, which the search giant explains can be used to restrict what Internet content people can see 'based on geographical location information of the user and based on access rights possessed for the document.' From the patent: 'For example, readers from the United States may be given "partial" access to the document while readers in Canada may be given "full" access to the document. This may be because the content provider has been granted full rights in the document from the publisher for Canadian readers but has not been granted rights in the United States, so the content provider may choose to only enable fair use display for readers in the United States.' Oh well, at least Google is 'no longer willing to continue censoring [their] results on Google.cn.'"
Power

FAA Data Shows Exploding Batteries Are Rare, Small Risk 183

Posted by timothy from the but-you-don't-want-to-be-there dept.
ericatcw writes "While the US government is intent on adding new rules around the shipment and carrying of Lithium-Ion batteries on passenger and cargo planes, data from its own Federal Aviation Agency show that the risk of being on an airplane where someone — not necessarily you — suffers a minor injury due to a battery is only one in 28 million, reports Computerworld, which analyzed the data (skip to the chart here) using the free Tableau Public data visualization service. Getting killed in a car accident, by contrast, is 4,300 times more likely. Opponents say the rules could raise the cost of shopping online and add hassles for fliers and consumers."
The Courts

Prison Bans D&D For Mimicking Gang Structure 496

Posted by kdawson from the step-away-from-the-polyhedral-dice dept.
Trepidity writes "In a case that has been winding its way through the courts for a while now, a Wisconsin prison banned inmates from playing Dungeons & Dragons, using the justification that 'one player is denoted the Dungeon Master... [who] is tasked with giving directions to other players... [which] mimics the organization of a gang.' The prison also cited some sparse evidence that a handful of non-inmate D&D players once committed some crimes that allegedly were related to their D&D playing. On Monday the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the regulation (PDF) against challenges from inmates. The court appeared skeptical of the ban, sarcastically referring to it as the 'war on D&D,' but upheld it nonetheless as having a 'rational basis.' Law professor Ilya Somin suggests that the court may have had no choice, given how deferential rational-basis review usually is."
Government

Deadline For Data.gov Arrives, and Delivers 81

Posted by kdawson from the set-my-data-free dept.
inKubus writes "According to a story carried by AP, as part of President Barack Obama's 'Open Government Directive,' the 24 major departments and agencies that make up the executive branch of the federal government had until Friday to release at least three 'high-value' data sets. Over 300 new data sets have been released on data.gov. There's a lot of interesting stuff on there and more to come." One of the departments required to release data is the office of the US Trade Representative. Wouldn't it be nice if they posted the ACTA negotiating drafts?

Submission + - Jammie Thomas verdict reduced from $1.92M to $54k (blogspot.com)

Submitted by NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: The $1.92 million dollar RIAA verdict in Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset has been reduced from $1,920,000 to $54,000. The judge indicated that he found even the reduced amount to be 'harsh' and that, were he — rather than the jury — determining the proper damages, he might well have awarded even less. In his 38-page decision (PDF), Judge Michael J. Davis concluded that $2250 per infringed work was the maximum amount a jury could reasonably award without the result being a 'shock to the conscience', and indicated that he was relying solely on standard principles of 'remittitur', without reaching the constitutional due process arguments advanced by Ms. Thomas-Rasset's counsel. Judge Davis also indicated that he was relying in part upon the defendant's having lied under oath during the trial. The judge stated that 'statutory damages must still bear some relation to actual damages'.
Space

Submission + - 15 Year Old Student Discovers New Pulsar (nrao.edu) 1

Submitted by
ScuttleMonkey
ScuttleMonkey writes: "For the second time in as many years a student has made a discovery while participating in the Pulsar Search Collaboratory (PSC), a joint program between the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and West Virginia University designed to get students and teachers involved in analyzing data from the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT). This time it was high school sophomore Shay Bloxton who discovered a brand new pulsar. "For Bloxton, the pulsar discovery may be only her first in a scientific career. "Participating in the PSC has definitely encouraged me to pursue my dream of being an astrophysicist," she said, adding that she hopes to attend West Virginia University to study astrophysics. Late last year, another West Virginia student, from South Harrison High School, Lucas Bolyard, discovered a pulsar-like object called a rotating radio transient. His discovery also came through participation in the PSC.""

Submission + - Canada Police State (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Alberta Canada is known for being a police state. The training the Canadian Police receive amounts to shoot first, ask questions later, than cover up your mistakes. There is a strong unknown movement in Canada to revolt against the current Police state. We need world wide coverage of the issues in Alberta Canada and the rest of Canada. Unless the Human rights issues of Canada make world wide news, there will be no charge for Canada. Please post these CBC news stories.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2010/01/21/calgary-police-charges-assault-taxi.html — http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2010/01/13/calgary-police-charges-taser-traffic-stops.html — http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2010/01/16/edmonton-police-shooting-woman-killed.html — http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/01/21/bc-vpd-alleged-assault-yao-wei-wu.html
Idle

Submission + - TSA plays joke on traveller at screening (philly.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As a 22 year old female student at the University of Michigan went through security at Philadelphia International Airport, a TSA worker was staring at her. He motioned her toward him. Then he pulled a small, clear plastic bag from her carry-on — the sort of baggie that a pair of earrings might come in. Inside the bag was fine, white powder. Answer truthfully, the TSA worker informed her, and everything will be OK. After 20 seconds of crying, the TSA agent waved the baggie. It was his, and it was all a joke. Ann Davis, a TSA spokeswoman, said this afternoon that the worker is no longer employed by the agency as of today. She said privacy laws prevented her from saying if he was fired or left on his own.
Privacy

Tor Users Urged To Update After Security Breach 161

Posted by timothy from the points-of-failure dept.
An anonymous reader writes "If you use Tor, you're cautioned to update now due to a security breach. In a message on the Tor mailing list dated Jan 20, 2010, Tor developer Roger Dingledine outlines the issue and why you should upgrade to Tor 0.2.1.22 or 0.2.2.7-alpha now: 'In early January we discovered that two of the seven directory authorities were compromised (moria1 and gabelmoo), along with metrics.torproject.org, a new server we'd recently set up to serve metrics data and graphs. The three servers have since been reinstalled with service migrated to other servers.' Tor users should visit the download page and update ASAP."
Games

Submission + - Rockstar Employees Badly Overworked Say Wives (gamasutra.com)

Submitted by juicegg
juicegg writes: Wives of Rockstar Games employees in San Diego have published an open letter on their Gamasutra blog. The authors say that Rockstar employees are seriously strained by unending crunch periods of 12 hour work days and 6 day weeks. High levels of stress are leading to serious psychological and physical problems for some of the employees. They charge that studio management uses arbitrary, deceptive and manipulative practices to get employees to work more unpaid overtime hours at greater intensity — despite Grand Theft Auto selling $1 billion copies.

Among blog comments some current and past Rockstar employees are confirming problems with the studio. "Ex Rocker" writes:
"What makes R* crunch periods different then any other studio is that they tell you the game has to be finished in 6 months so let's start our final push to get this awesome game out there! 6 months turns into 1 year, 1 year turns into 2"

Other comments reveal worker hopelessness and general mismanagement at the San Diego studio.

Related stories here and here

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