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Submission + - Why Apple Won't Adopt A Wireless Charging Standard (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: As the battle for mobile dominance continues among three wireless charging standards, with many smartphone and wearable makers having already chosen sides, Apple continues to sit on the sideline. While the new Apple Watch uses a tightly coupled magnetic inductive wireless charging technology, it still requires a cable. The only advantage is that no port is required, allowing the watch case to remain sealed and water resistant. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, however, remain without any form of wireless charging, either tightly coupled inductive or more loosely coupled resonant charging. Over the past few years, Apple has filed patents on its own flavor of wireless charging, a "near field" or resonant technology, but no products have as yet come to market. If and when it does select a technology, it will likely be its own proprietary specification, which ensures accessory makers will have to pay royalties to use it.

Submission + - Kim Stanley Robinson Says Colonizing Mars Won't Be As Easy As He Thought (io9.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy filled us all with hope that we could terraform Mars in the 21st century, with its plausible description of terraforming processes. But now, in the face of what we've learned about Mars in the past 20 years, he no longer thinks it'll be that easy.

Talking to SETI's Blog Picture Science podcast, Robinson explains that his ideas about terraforming Mars, back in the 1990s, were based on three assumptions that have been called into question or disproved:

1) Mars doesn't have any life on it at all. And now, it's looking more likely that there could be bacteria living beneath the surface. "That's going to be very hard to disprove," says Robinson. "We could be intruding on alien life."

2) There would be enough of the chemical compounds we need to survive. In particular, we need a lot of nitrogen â" and scientists had expected there to be a lot, based on the ordinary distribution of elements in planetary accretion. But there's much less nitrogen on Mars than we'd hoped.

3) There's nothing poisonous to us on the surface. In fact, the surface is covered with perchlorates, which are highly toxic to humans, and the original Viking mission did not detect these. We could use bacteria to dispose of them, but it would be a very long-term process.

"It's no longer a simple matter," Robinson says. "It's possible that we could occupy, inhabit and terraform Mars. But it's probably going to take a lot longer than I described in my books."

Instead, Robinson says that Mars can't serve as a "backup planet," and that we need to fix our problems here on Earth if we're to have any hope of surviving for the timescales needed to set up an eventual colony there.

Submission + - Steve Jobs's Big Miss: TV (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: Steve Jobs was a well-known audiophile and music lover, which helps explain why Apple transformed the music industry in the '00s with the iPod and iTunes. But according to a new biography soon to be released, Apple may have failed to do the same for TV because of Steve Jobs's disdain for the medium. One of his first acts upon returning to the company was to kill the flashy, expensive 20th Anniversary Macintosh, in part because it had a built-in TV tuner. 'Apple will never make a TV again," Jobs declared.

Submission + - GE and Livermore National Lab Funded for Open Source 3D Printing Algorithms (llnl.gov)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: “Commercial SLM machines do not permit access to specific process parameter information and tool paths,” said Bill Carter, a researcher with GE’s Additive Manufacturing Lab, which is under GE’s Global Research. “This limits the ability of researchers to perform controlled validation experiments that support modeling work and process development. The cooperation of GE and LLNL will result in a demonstration of the new protocol on several research machines, paving the way for more robust process control and optimization strategies.”

Submission + - Here's Why Patents Are Innovation's Worst Enemy (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: Patents did serve an important purpose during the days when technology advances happened over decades or centuries. In today’s era of exponentially advancing technologies, however, patents have become the greatest inhibitor to innovation and are holding the United States back. The only way of staying ahead is to out-innovate a competitor; speed to market and constant reinvention are critical. Patents do the reverse; they create disincentives to innovate and slow down innovators by allowing technology laggards and extortionists to sue them.

Submission + - Behind the White House's claim of 545,000 unfilled IT jobs (computerworld.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: The data comes from Burning Glass Technologies, which analyzes help-wanted ads.

This means that the administration's 545,000 unfilled IT jobs figure is based on the Burning Glass analysis. It arrived at this by counting the number of jobs over a 90-day period leading up to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Jan. 20, according to Dan Restuccia, chief analytics officer at Burning Glass.

Burning Glass's approach draws concerns from Hal Salzman, a professor of planning and public policy at Rutgers University, who studies the science and engineering workforce. "They claim they deduplicate, but they don't publish their methodology; there is no external verification," he said.
Games

Mario Gets a Portal Gun In New Indie Game 85

Posted by Soulskill from the princess-is-a-lie dept.
jjp9999 sends word of a game in development that mashes up Super Mario Bros. and Portal. Dubbed Mari0 by its developer, the game is being built on the Löve framework and will be released for free. The original Super Mario Bros. levels will be included, as well as some puzzle-style maps and a level editor. They also plan to include simultaneous multiplayer.
Image

Drought-Stricken Texas Town Taps Urine For Water Screenshot-sm 300

Posted by samzenpus from the it's-important-to-stay-hydrated dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Texas is in the midst of a drought so severe that local water management teams have decided to distribute reclaimed wastewater (aka urine). The Colorado River Municipal Water District in West Texas has broken ground on a $13 million plant that will capture treated wastewater and ready it for redistribution. After being run through microfilters and undergoing reverse osmosis, slimy sewage is cleansed with peroxide and ultraviolet light. This intense process ensures that any pharmaceuticals and carcinogens are removed, and that the H2O stands up to drinking water regulations."
Government

Why the US Govt Should Be Happy About Wikileaks 232

Posted by samzenpus from the how-I-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-leaks dept.
angry tapir writes "WikiLeaks' leaking of classified information should be considered a blessing for the US government, and other governments should take heed of the lessons when it comes to information sharing, according to Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) research associate, Professor Mike Nelson, who spent four years as Senator Al Gore's science adviser and served as the White House director for technology policy on IT, and was also a member of Barack Obama presidential campaign."

Comment Re:Agreed (Score 2, Insightful) 741

by azaris (#35778842) Attached to: Could You Pass Harvard's Entrance Exam From 1869?

I admit, I struggled a bit with the polynomials as I don't work much with them anymore, I still don't see any direct application for them even after years of working in scientific computing. Therefore, I see them as a graduation test only, meaning "If we can force you to learn this, then we can force you to learn anything.".

Just for that you fail the exam.
Google

MPAA Threatens To Disconnect Google From Internet 468

Posted by samzenpus from the searching-for-glass-tigers dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Over the last few months, Google has received more than 100 copyright infringement warnings from MPAA-affiliated movies studios. Most are directed at users of Google's public Wi-Fi service, but others are meant for Google employees. The MPAA is thus warning the search giant that it might get disconnected from the Internet. Although the copyright holders use strong language, these notices are simply warnings, and typically do not lead to legal action."

Comment Re:Guilty much? (Score 1) 685

by azaris (#34441876) Attached to: Graduate Students Being Warned Away From Leaked Cables

I think the point the GP was making was that, yes the US military can instantly and overwhelmingly wipe out any civil resistance. However that is entirely dependent on said soldiers of the US military actually following those orders. If there was a civil insurrection, there is a real possibility that soldiers would simply refuse to open fire on civilians and also possible that they would simply join them.

Doesn't happen much, does it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_State_killings

Comment Re:People would protest against raising corp. tax (Score 2, Funny) 809

by azaris (#34363710) Attached to: The Luck of the Irish Runs Out

Look, left-wing parties are likely to do well in our next election, but no-one sensible here, left or right, wants to raise the corporation tax rate. These companies provide our jobs.

If a raise would be announced, ordinary people here would really start to protest.

Ireland is not the US, where lower-middle class working people will protest on the streets saying that Mario Antoinette should have more cake.

Comment Re:please don't (Score 1) 518

by azaris (#34303644) Attached to: FPS Games That Need a Remake
I think he was referring to the "Press X to duck behind this crate. Press Y to shoot your opponent. Wait 5 seconds to heal fully from any and all damage you've taken. Watch a five minute cutscene" type gameplay that passes for console FPS.

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