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China

Submission + - Forbes: Manufacturing unprofitable to China. Bring (forbes.com)

Submitted by N!NJA
N!NJA writes: My favourite fact of this past year was the proof that China makes almost nothing out of assembling Apple‘s iPads and iPhones. It’s a favourite because it speaks so directly to one of the great political arguments going on in both the US and the UK. I refer, of course, to this very strange idea that both countries would get (even) richer if only they would do more manufacturing. [...] If you want lots of jobs and lots of high paying jobs then you’re not going to find them in manufacturing. They’re where the money is, in the design, the software and the retailing of the products, not the physical making of them. Manufacturing is just so, you know, 20th century.

Submission + - GoDaddy still supports SOPA (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by blkwolf
blkwolf writes: The public statement that GoDaddy no longer supports SOPA was nothing but a PR move to keep people from leaving. They still wont change their position on supporting it, in the record of Congress.

Comment Re:Nothing here (Score 1) 182

by N!NJA (#38126486) Attached to: Amazon Denies Reports That Airport Scanners Ruin Kindle's e-Ink

I own an Archos 5 IMT, which, although doesn't use e-ink, has a touchscreen. Recently, during my first flight with it, I noticed the screen had become completely unresponsive. I was forced to put it aside. The device was working properly the day before, and was back to normal again when I tried it again at the hotel. While not a sample size as large as yours, it's meaningful to me because my device has always worked properly with the exception of that flight.

There might be some component inside these gadgets that is either:

a) affected by the pre-flight scanners.

or

b) the in-flight instruments.

Comment HP has hit the iceberg... Intel isn't helping. (Score 2) 235

by N!NJA (#37939766) Attached to: HP Slate 2: Brilliant or Bust?

Exactly year ago, when HP released the Slate 500 (the predecessor to this Slate 2), there was a lot excitement among Tablet PC enthusiasts regarding the device. the device had been hinted by Ballmer at CES, then touted by HP, then mysteriously killed by the company, then suddenly resurrected by HP. Once released, the device sold out remarkably quick and became a source of frustration to those that awaited months for production to catch up with demand. It was obvious that HP had underestimated the Slate 500's appeal. The device got mostly good reviews from its owners. But at at treat point, HP had already shifted focus to the Touchpad, which got all attention, marketing and resources.

If you needed dual-boot capability, MS Office (or LibreOffice, like me!), Winamp, Notepad++, VirtualBox, Firefox and other Windows apps; and you happened to be into tablet computing; the Slate 500 offered you a platform to both consume media and do real work on the go....with all the amenities of laptops such USB, HDMI, SD Card slot, Bluetooth, etc. Truth be told, not cheap as a netbook, but you'd get a business-grade machine with decent durability, a docking station and a touchscreen.

Fast forward 12 months to this Slate 2. Intel convinced HP to "upgrade" (this word, plus "innovate" have truly lost their meaning) from the original Atom Z540 used on the Slate 500, to the slower Atom Z670. Not only is the CPU inside the "upgraded" Slate 2 quite slower, but its integrated graphics suffers from some crippling driver-induced sickness that prevents the GPU from even performing at the levels of the year-old Slate 500. Not only the new HP Slate 2 got beat by its predecessor from a year ago, but it also arrived too late, as Fujitsu released a slate of similar specs (the Q550) about 6 months ago.

I own 2 Tablet PCs (I'm handwriting this from one of them right now), but if you want to try this platform (this is not a toy), do yourself a favor and get a Tablet PC from someone else (the Samsung Series 7 Slate looks good). HP has lost its way.
Apple

Submission + - Eric Raymond Defends Stallman Over Jobs Remarks (muktware.com) 1

Submitted by N!NJA
N!NJA writes: Many have already read on the Internets what Richard Stallman said about Steve Jobs:

"Steve Jobs, the pioneer of the computer as a jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their freedom, has died. As Chicago Mayor Harold Washington said of the corrupt former Mayor Daley, "I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad he's gone." Nobody deserves to have to die — not Jobs, not Mr. Bill, not even people guilty of bigger evils than theirs. But we all deserve the end of Jobs' malign influence on people's computing. Unfortunately, that influence continues despite his absence. We can only hope his successors, as they attempt to carry on his legacy, will be less effective."

Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/10/steve-jobs-stallman-dissenting-view.html



Eric S Raymond, the author of Cathedral in Bazaar has come out to defend Richard M Stallman:

"But the Mac also set a negative pattern that Jobs was to repeat with greater amplification later in his life. In two respects; first, it was a slick repackaging of design ideas from an engineering tradition that long predated Jobs (in this case, going back to the pioneering Xerox PARC WIMP interfaces of the early 1970s). Which would be fine, except that Jobs created a myth that arrogated that innovation to himself and threw the actual pioneers down the memory hole."

"Second, even while Jobs was posing as a hip liberator from the empire of the beige box, he was in fact creating a hardware and software system so controlling and locked down that the case couldn’t even be opened without a special cracking tool. The myth was freedom, but the reality was Jobs’s way or the highway. Such was Jobs’s genius as a marketer that he was able to spin that contradiction as a kind of artistic integrity, and gain praise for it when he should have been slammed for hypocrisy."

"What’s really troubling is that Jobs made the walled garden seem cool. He created a huge following that is not merely resigned to having their choices limited, but willing to praise the prison bars because they have pretty window treatments."

Source: http://www.muktware.com/news/2623
Facebook

Submission + - Why Occupy Wall Street Chose Tumblr (discovery.com)

Submitted by RedEaredSlider
RedEaredSlider writes: Earlier this year, Facebook and Twitter played a crucial role in mobilizing protestors in Iran, Cairo and Tunisia. Now Tumblr has been uniquely appropriated for a U.S.-based protest movement known as Occupy Wall Street, which has been coalescing in New York, Boston and Chicago to challenge the influence of corporate money on government and the growth of social and economic inequality.

A hybrid of ordinary blogging platforms, such as Typepad or Wordpress, and of the microblogging site Twitter, Tumblr gives users the ability to post photos, videos and messages and share with people they don’t know.

The site has been a force behind the Occupy Wall Street protests, growing the number of demonstrations from just dozens of people in late September to thousands on Wednesday, as several local unions joined in on a march down Broadway.
Medicine

Submission + - Did Alternative Medicine Contribute to Steve Jobs' (skeptoid.com) 9

Submitted by
ideonexus
ideonexus writes: "An aspect of Steve Jobs' battle with cancer that the media has been glossing over is the fact that Jobs' spent nine months pursuing alternative therapies to treat his tumor before finally having it surgically removed as modern medicine recommended. Jobs' particular form of pancreatic cancer was very treatable and had a high survival rate, but his delay in seeking professional medical treatment moved him into the low survival rate group.

This raises the question, how could someone as wealthy and intelligent as Steve Jobs do something so foolish as to completely disregard modern medicine in treating such a life-threatening disease? And how much money did Jobs' "naturopath" make off of prescribing a clinically-unproven diet that delayed an effective treatment and dramatically reduced his chances of survival?"
HP

Submission + - HP Hires Goldman to Defend Against Activists/Oracl (nytimes.com)

Submitted by N!NJA
N!NJA writes: Hewlett-Packard has hired Goldman Sachs as an adviser to help defend against potential activist investors or hostile bidders seeking a break-up of the troubled technology giant, people briefed on the matter told DealBook on Wednesday. The hiring of Goldman is not surprising. Analysts and investors have mused for months that H.P. is ripe for an activist investor to arise, demanding even bolder steps to try to bolster shareholder value. Shares of H.P. have fallen more than 44 percent over the last 12 months, closing on Wednesday at $23.19. With the company's stock price hovering near 52-week lows, HP's management and directors have become concerned that agitators may begin amassing sizable holdings, these people said.

On the same topic:

HP Said to Have Been Concerned Over Oracle When Switching CEOs

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-09-29/hp-said-to-have-been-concerned-over-oracle-when-switching-ceos.html

Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) — Hewlett-Packard Co. directors were concerned that plummeting shares would make the company vulnerable to a bid from Oracle Corp. when they replaced Leo Apotheker with Meg Whitman, two people close to the board said. While Oracle has considered informally whether to approach Hewlett-Packard, it's unlikely to make a bid any time soon, three people close to the software company said. After speaking with several financial advisers, Hewlett-Packard has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to help it prepare for any possible moves by activist investors, one person said.

Submission + - Brazil's $12 bln iPad deal is in trouble - sources (reuters.com)

Submitted by N!NJA
N!NJA writes: The proposal to build Apple's sleek tablet computers in Brazil was first announced in April by President Dilma Rousseff during an official visit to China. Senior officials hailed the deal as a sign of growing economic ties with Asia, and proof that Brazil was moving up the value-added manufacturing chain as its economy grows.

Yet the idea for a "Brazilian iPad" prompted immediate skepticism back home, where factories have struggled for years with high taxes, an overvalued currency and a lack of qualified workers due to poor education and a tight labour market.

The expected start date for production was first set for July, then delayed to November. Now, it is unclear whether the project will ever get off the ground, at least in the form that it was originally envisioned, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

"The talks have been very difficult, and the project for a Brazilian iPad is in doubt," one official said. "(Foxconn) is making crazy demands" for tax breaks and other special treatment, the official added.
Space

Submission + - SpaceX Reveals Plans For Full Reusability (hobbyspace.com)

Submitted by FleaPlus
FleaPlus writes: At a talk at the National Press Club, SpaceX's Elon Musk revealed the company's plans for making their Falcon 9 rocket fully reusable. A rendering depicts the first stage, upper stage, and Dragon capsule all separately returning to the Earth's surface and making a controlled rocket-powered landing. During the next few years SpaceX will be testing VTVL maneuvers and reusability with their Falcon 9-based 'Grasshopper' testbed, with up to 70 test launches per year. Musk stated that if reuse is successful it would result in a 100x reduction in their already-low launch costs, a key step towards Musk's long-term aim of lowering the price of a ticket to Mars to $500K.
Android

Submission + - Brazil House OKs Tax Breaks For Media Tablets (wsj.com)

Submitted by N!NJA
N!NJA writes: This is an interesting development in technology industry of Brazil. The government is pushing what they call "digital inclusion", which aims to give its citizens easier access to technology. They recently approved a tax break that will make media tablets (iPad and Android only, I believe) 30% cheaper. The problem with this idea is 2 fold: 1) media tablets are more expensive than cheap laptops/netbooks and only the rich Brazilians would be able to afford them. If the majority of the population won't benefit, that isn't real "inclusion". 2) media tablets lack the basic features of actual laptops, so the level of empowerment they provide is comparatively lower. I'm curious to the what fellow Slashdoters think about it.

So here's the scoop:

"Brazil's lower house in a voice vote Tuesday gave approval to a measure offering tax breaks for national production of tablet computers. The bill, which still must gain final approval in the Senate, would offer manufacturers full exemption from the country's PIS and Cofins tax. According to government estimates, the tax breaks could help reduce the final cost to consumers by more than 30%. The measure was introduced by the government as part of a series of incentives to attract foreign tablet manufacturers to the country. In addition to exemption from the PIS and Cofins taxes, the government has also pledged reductions in the IPI industrial products tax and the II import tax. Of a total of 12 million computers produced in Brazil last year, only 100,000 were tablets."
-- Wall Street Journal

Comment Shame on MS & partners. TabletPCs lacked promo (Score 1) 163

by N!NJA (#36782792) Attached to: Microsoft's Looming 'Single Windows Ecosystem'
The TabletPC platform failed because of the lack of promotion. Microsoft and the OEMs (Dell, HP, Lenovo, Gateway, etc) have never -- to this day -- to advertise Tablet PCs. I have never seen a Tablet PC ad anywhere. Ever! Not even in brochures mailed by the aforementioned companies! They don't even appear on the Home Page of those OEMs. They've bastardized the technology from the start. Then they waited for someone with more vision and interest in it to fully capitalize on the idea. This someone turned out to be Apple, who, since Day-1, has made enormous fanfare about the platform. Let's face it, Apple's remarkable marketing machine could convince an eskimo to buy an iFridge. Kudos to them.

Shame on Microsoft and friends for their utter incompetence at showing people that they have had tablets for a decade and what such machines were like. And before someone starts bitching about the Tablet PC's initial reliance on a stylus (pen), know that Apple is currently working on a stylus for a future iPad. Once it comes out, people will think that Apple invented the tablet....and the stylus! Brilliant! :-D

- Proudly owner of TabletPCs (TC1100 and TM2) for 5 years.
Apple

Submission + - Apple patent eyes Mac OS X tablet (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by N!NJA
N!NJA writes: A patent application published on Thursday reveals how far Apple has progressed on melding iOS's multi-touch interface with Mac OS X, and hints that the Mac operating system's multiple-workspace feature, Spaces, may find its way onto the iPad.

Rather than manipulating Spaces using your keyboard or mouse as Mac OS X now requires, however, the filing envisions using multi-touch, multi-finger gestures to summon the Spaces view, move windows from workspace to workspace, and select which one to fill the display.

"Why bother?" you might ask. Well, according to Apple, using a mouse or keyboard to manage Spaces is "cumbersome and inefficient", requiring "selecting an icon or other small graphical user interface object with a cursor," or "remembering unintuitive keyboard shortcuts". Such actions are not only "tedious and create a significant cognitive burden", they also "wast[e] energy" which is "particularly important in battery-operated devices".

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