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Comment Re:More reasont to give up hope on a good dumb pho (Score 1) 247

by Whatanut (#40974605) Attached to: Motorola To Cut 4,000 Jobs, Focus On High-End Devices

Of course, you realize this is nowhere near being in the best interest of manufacturer. You're asking for a low priced phone (margins aside) that you'll buy today and use for 10+ years. It's much more in their interest to get you to upgrade every couple of years. Repeat customer.

I'm sure your answer to that would be "Screw 'em! I'm the customer! This is what I want!" However, I'm sure we're all aware that it doesn't work this way. There is always the other spectrum where they are simply losing overall sales because they don't provide you what you want. But I don't see that happening with phones much these days. Most people want the bling...

Comment Re:Please sign in to your cable or sat account (Score 1) 378

by Whatanut (#40626661) Attached to: DirecTV Drops Viacom Channels

Why would they. Those sites are a complete end run around the cable/satellite companies. With the the cable/satellite partners they sell their content and walk away. The cable/satellite companies charge the end users for the content and then lather it up with advertising to get as much money as possible out of it. The web sites that make the shows available provide the content straight from the source and tack on the same advertising. It's just straight profit for the content creator (used loosely). Why should they care if you have a cable/satellite account? They're still making profits either way.
Businesses

Is Gamification a Good Motivator? 290

Posted by samzenpus from the winning-at-work dept.
CowboyRobot writes "Growing up, many of our teachers used gamification techniques such as a gold star sticker on a test (essentially a badge) or a public display of which students had completed a set of readings (leaderboard). These were intended to motivate students to strive to do better. Now, these techniques are increasingly common in the workplace where the parallel with computer games is more intentional. A report by Gartner predicts that 'by 2015, 50% of organizations that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes.' One example would be assigning badges for submitting work on time, another would be having a leaderboard in an office to show who completed a training module first. The idea of using game mechanics in work or study environments is not new, but its ubiquity is. Educators can discuss how effective gamification is in classrooms, but how useful is it as a motivator in the workplace?"
GNU is Not Unix

Is GPL Licensing In Decline? 266

Posted by samzenpus from the way-of-the-dodo dept.
GMGruman writes "Simon Phipps writes, "As Apache licenses proliferate, two warring camps have formed over whether the GPL is or isn't falling out of favor in favor of the Apache License." But as he explores the issues on both sides, he shows how the binary thinking on the issue is misplaced, and that the truth is more nuanced, with Apache License gaining in commercially focused efforts but GPL appearing to increase in software-freedom-oriented efforts. In other words, it depends on the style of open source."

Comment Re:Sounds like government censorship to me (Score 1) 118

by Whatanut (#39724349) Attached to: Avian Flu Researcher Plans to Defy Dutch Ban On Publishing Paper

I'm not sure why everyone assumes this research is suddenly dangerous just because it exists. I find one of three scenarios likely.

1. The "terrorists" wouldn't understand the research and, therefore, wouldn't be able to do anything with it. So, no harm done and very little risk. Continue the research and our overall understanding.

2. The 'terrorists" have the people they need in their fold which can understand and do something with this research. Doesn't it stand to reason, then, that these same "terrorist" scientists could just do the same research on their own and produce similar results without this particular piece being published? "Oh! But it'll be easy for them now!". I don't really buy that one. If they wanted to do something along these lines they would have already.

3. The "terrorists" can now go recruit people that would understand and be able to do something with this research. Same scenario as number 2. They could have done this ages ago and done the research on their own.

I have a hard time believing that just because this paper is published it will be any easier for the bad guys to do harm.

Comment First comment talks about meth (Score 1) 706

*scroll* *scroll* *scroll* *scroll*....
sitll talking about meth
*scroll* *scroll* *scroll* *scroll*....
sitll talking about meth
*scroll* *scroll* *scroll* *scroll*....
sitll talking about meth
*scroll* *scroll* *scroll* *scroll*....
sitll talking about meth
*scroll* *scroll* *scroll* *scroll*....

I thought this article was about breathalysers in France...

Comment Accidentally sat on the passport and broke it? (Score 1) 624

by Whatanut (#39115675) Attached to: Damaged US Passport Chip Strands Travelers

What??

1. What???
2. See number 1.

Passports in the US are good for 10 years. And if you do any amount of traveling they get a fair amount of use. Mine is around 5 years old now and it's showing it's age. Tattered edges, curled a bit. I sit on the thing all the time. I pretty much keep it on my person at all times when traveling. If you can "break" a passport by sitting on it (a child none-the-less!) then there is a serious design problem here.

Hell, I can sit on my phone without breaking the thing!
The Military

Nuclear Truckers Haul Warheads Across US 461

Posted by Soulskill from the why-can't-the-history-channel-make-a-show-about-that dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "As you weave through interstate traffic, you're unlikely to notice a plain-looking Peterbilt tractor-trailer or have any idea that inside the cab an armed federal agent operates a host of electronic countermeasures to keep outsiders from accessing his heavily armored cargo: a nuclear warhead. Adam Weinstein writes that the Office of Secure Transportation (OST) employs nearly 600 couriers to move bombs, weapon components, radioactive metals for research, and fuel for Navy ships and submarines between a variety of labs, reactors and military bases. Hiding nukes in plain sight and rolling them through major metropolitan centers raises a slew of security and environmental concerns, from theft to terrorist attack to radioactive spills. 'Any time you put nuclear weapons and materials on the highway, you create security risks,' says Tom Clements, a nuclear security watchdog for Friends of the Earth. For security, cabs are fitted with custom composite armor and lightweight armored glass, a redundant communications system that links the convoys to a monitoring center in Albuquerque, and the driver has the ability to disable the truck so it can't be moved or opened. The OST hires military veterans, particularly ex-special-operations forces (PDF), who are trained in close-quarters battle, tactical shooting, physical fitness, and shifting smoothly through the gears of a tractor-trailer. But accidents happen. In 1996, a driver flipped his trailer on a two-lane Nebraska hill road after a freak ice storm, sending authorities scrambling to secure its payload of two nuclear bombs; and in 2003, two trucks operated by private contractors had rollover accidents in Montana and Tennessee while hauling uranium hexafluoride, a compound used to enrich reactor and bomb fuel."

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