Comment Direct link to the source of the story (Score 4, Informative) 53
How about linking directly to the source, instead of to this blogspam: http://www.rug.nl/cit/hpcv/nieuws/touchscreen1
Comment Fountain Show (Score 4, Informative) 88
If you haven't seen the Dubai fountain show choreographed to Baba Yetu, you owe it to yourself to check out the amazing video on YouTube (uploaded by the composer): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMf85JxUod4
Comment Re:Two factor? Not quite (Score 2) 399
No, it's really two factor: something you know (password) + something you have (cell phone or landline).
Comment Re:IMAP? (Score 4, Informative) 399
Read the article. There is a randomly-generated application-specific 16 digit password that is used for things like IMAP and POP3. If someone gets access to that (unlikely, since you would never need to write it down, and Google encrypts IMAP and POP3), they can only access that specific service, and its not going to be the same password you use anywhere else.
Comment I'm waiting for Epoch Second 1300000000 (Score 4, Funny) 81
I'm waiting for Epoch Second 1300000000, which will be Sun, 13 Mar 2011 07:06:40 GMT
All those zeros will ease the pain of 2011 being the first year since 1977 that no one could make year-shaped glasses for new year's eve that actually allow you to see out of both eyes.
Submission + - Google Calls 'December Fools' on Contest Hopefuls
theodp writes: Google pledged to unveil the winner of its Google Fiber initiative by the end of the year, but that date has now slipped into 2011. For the cities so desperate to host the project that they even changed their name — prompting an April Fools goof from Google CEO Eric Schmidt — the delay is likely to be frustrating. This isn't the first time Google has blamed an overwhelming response for a missed deadline on a high-profile contest. After backing off of the original vision for the Google 10^100 contest celebrating the search giant's 10th B-day in 2008, Google struggled for two years before finally awarding the $10 million in prize money to groups that coincidentally were pretty tight with Google — $3MM went to fave-of-Sergey-Brin FIRST; $2MM was earmarked for prior-Google-award-recipient AIMS; another $2MM went to longtime-Google-supported Public.Resource.Org; and $2MM was awarded to Khan Academy, a pet non-profit of Google Director John Doerr and his wife. The one apparent exception was $1MM recipient Shweeb, whose mission still jibed nicely with Larry Page's decades-old dream of building a monorail. Hopefully the winner(s) of the Google Fiber will be less about who-you-know-at-Google, although it has already been announced that a faculty/staff housing development owned by Stanford (Sergey and Larry's alma mater) will get 1Gbps Google fiber regardless of how Palo Alto fares in the judging.
Comment Re:Screw "SyFi" or whatever they call themselves. (Score 1) 602
I visited Universal Studios just before Season 3 started, and they were handing out "Battlestar Galactica: The Story Thus Far" DVDs to everyone as they left the park (if you don't remember, that was a 1-hr special designed to get new viewers up to speed that Universal aired on NBC, SCI-FI, USA, Bravo, Universal HD, and Sleuth, and which they made available online for free).
Comment Re:If you really care, sue (Score 3, Interesting) 437
Yes, of course the EFF would help you sue Cory Doctorow, who is a former EFF staff member, recipient of EFF's 2007 Pioneer Award, and a current EFF fellow.
Long In Development, Toshiba 'SCiB' Battery Debuts 284
relliker notes Toshiba's announcement of the SCiB, a battery we have been following for years. (As usual, use NoScript to avoid the incredibly annoying timed begging popup on Gizmag's site.) Here is Toshiba's SCiB site. The battery's specs claim 6,000+ charge/deep-discharge cycles with minor capacity loss, safe rapid charging to 90% in 5 minutes, and enhanced safety regarding overheating or shorting out. It could make its way into electric vehicles before long.
Comment Re:Spammers will LOVE this (Score 1) 397
I don't even see why this is news. I had an HP printer with "HP Instant Delivery" 12 years ago (in 1998), which could print out a customized newspaper each morning based on your preferences. You would choose the types of stories, the sources it would pull from, and the length. And yes, the newspaper included small ads. It was actually quite handy for reading during the morning commute.
Microsoft Lifts XP Mode Hardware Requirement 205
An anonymous reader writes "This week, Microsoft published a patch that allows Windows XP Mode to run on PCs without hardware-assisted virtualization. Which begs the question: Why the bizarro requirement in the first place? Was it an honest attempt to deliver an 'optimal' user experience? Or simply a concession to the company's jilted lover, Intel Corporation — 'a kind of apology for royally screwing up with the whole Windows Vista “too fat to fit” debacle,' as the blog post puts it."
Comment TurboTax DOES have 1-click facebook export already (Score 4, Informative) 244
I just finished my taxes last week, and in one of the last steps after e-filing TurboTax offered to post a "I just finished my taxes with TurboTax and I'm getting a $XXX refund!" message to my Facebook profile.
Angry AT&T Customers May Disrupt Service 572
g0dsp33d writes "Fake Steve Jobs, the alter-alias of Newsweek's Dan Lyons, is calling disgruntled AT&T users to protest comments from AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega that smart phone (specifically iPhone) usage is responsible for their network issues and his plan to end unlimited data plans. The post, dubbed 'Operation Chokehold,' wants AT&T customers to use as much data service as they can on Friday, December 18th at noon. While Fake Steve Jobs is notable for its satire, many Twitter and Facebook users seem to be rallying to its cry. It is unclear if there will be enough support to cause a DDOS."
Comment Re:I guess it is good news... (Score 4, Informative) 540
4.2.2.2 and their ilk are free and non-redirecting. You can use 4.2.2.1 4.2.2.2 4.2.2.3 4.2.2.4 4.2.2.5 or 4.2.2.6
They are run by L-3 and sitting on major backbones, and the ip addresses are pooled, so that you will likely get a server that is geographically near you when you use one of those addresses.
Student Loan Interest Rankles College Grads 1259
theodp writes "Like many recent college grads, Steven Lee finds himself unemployed in one of the roughest job markets in decades and saddled with a big pile of debt — he owes about $84,000 in student loans for undergrad and grad school. But what's really got Lee angry are the high interest rates on his government-backed student loans. 'The rate for a 30-year mortgage is around 5%,' Lee said. 'Why should anyone have to pay 8.5%? The government has bailed out homeowners. It's bailed out big businesses. Why can't it also help students?' Not only that, federal student loans are the only loans in the nation that are largely non-dischargeable in bankruptcy, have no statutes of limitations, and can't be refinanced after consolidation, so Lee can forget about pulling a move out of the GM playbook. And unlike mortgages on million-dollar vacation homes, student loans have very limited tax deductability. A spokeswoman for the Department of Education blamed Congress for the rates which she conceded 'may seem high today,' but suggested that students are a credit-unworthy lot who should thank their lucky stars that rates aren't 12% or higher. Makes one long for the good-old-days of 3% student loans, doesn't it?"
