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Businesses

Microsoft's Sneak Attack On Apple: SkyDrive, Not Surface 150

Posted by timothy from the as-long-as-it-works-on-my-windows-phone dept.
New submitter curtwoodward writes "Microsoft won't become a hardware company — unless you count mice and keyboards, former Microsoftie Charlie Kindel argues — because that would mean competing with Apple on its terms. But Kindel says Microsoft may be embarking on a totally new business model by seeding its connected software services across all platforms. You saw more evidence this week with the release of SkyDrive for Android. 'For that to work, it can't just be Windows,' he says. 'As a matter of fact, to beat Apple, it has to work really well on Apple devices.'"
Moon

LiftPort Wants To Build Space Elevator On the Moon By 2020 210

Posted by Soulskill from the now-we-just-have-to-get-to-the-moon dept.
Zothecula writes "When the late Neil Armstrong and the crew of Apollo 11 went to the Moon, they did so sitting atop a rocket the size of a skyscraper that blasted out jets of smoke and flame as it hurtled skyward. For over half a century, that is how all astronauts have gone into space. It's all very dramatic, but it's also expensive. Wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to take the elevator? That's the question that Michael Laine, CEO of LiftPort in Seattle, Washington, hopes to answer with the development of a transportation system that swaps space-rockets for space-ribbons. LiftPort ultimately wants to build a space elevator on Earth, but the company isn't planning on doing it in one go. Instead, Laine and his team are settling for a more modest goal – building an elevator on the Moon by 2020. This is much easier. For one thing, there’s no air on the Moon, so no icing problems. Also, the lower gravity means that no unobtainium is needed for the ribbon. Kevlar is strong enough for the job. And finally, there’s very little in the way of satellites or debris to contend with."

Comment I wrote about ADS-B homing drones last year (Score 1) 141

by George_Ou (#41089285) Attached to: FAA Denies Vulnerabilities In New Air Traffic Control System
I wrote about ADS-B homing drones last year and why jetliners (high value targets) should avoid beacon accuracy of Navigation Accuracy Category (NAC) level 7 (less than 93 meter accuracy) or better. It would be relatively easy to fly a piston powered model plane controlled by an iPod Touch connected to a GPS with 3-meter accuracy in front of the path of a jetliner carrying a small payload. The model plane wouldn't need to be fast because it would be the jetliner that runs into the model plane. http://www.hightechforum.org/new-airline-navigation-system-easy-target-for-terrorists/
NASA

Did an Unnamed MIT Student Save Apollo 13? 258

Posted by samzenpus from the cut-your-hair-and-get-a-job dept.
lukehopewell1 writes "When the Apollo 13 reported an explosion on board, NASA started a marathon effort to get the three astronauts home. Several options were considered, but history tells how flight director Gene Kranz ordered a slingshot around the moon. The story stayed that way for over 40 years, until this weekend when an ex-NASA press secretary came forward and said that an unnamed MIT grad student came up with the idea to slingshot the spacecraft around the moon. NASA reportedly buried his involvement at the last minute when it was discovered that he was a long-haired, bearded hippie-type.' Now the internet has gone on the hunt to find out who this unnamed hero really is."
Books

Chinese Writers Sue Apple Over IP Violations 143

Posted by samzenpus from the gentlemen-start-your-litigation dept.
hackingbear writes "A group of 22 Chinese authors have filed a claim against Apple, alleging its App Store sells unlicensed copies of their books. The Writers Rights Alliance, founded by Han Han, a young popular Chinese author and the worlds' most popular blogger, who is known for his cynical criticism of the government, petitioned Apple last year to stop electronic distribution of the writers' books and had earlier persuaded Baidu, China's largest search engine, to stop publishing their material on its Baidu Library product."
Android

Google In Battle With Its Own Lawyers 271

Posted by samzenpus from the keeps-your-friends-close dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Google is at daggers end with a law firm it's been using since 2008, after discovering that lawyers in the law firm, named Pepper Hamilton LLP, were representing a patent licensing business that sued Google's Android partners last month. Google has claimed that Pepper Hamilton LLP never provided notice that it was hired by Digitude Innovations LLC, the firm that filed patent infringement complaints against Google's business allies."

Comment Re:To bad the specs once again suck donkey balls (Score 1) 114

by George_Ou (#38861653) Attached to: New Spark Tablet To Come Loaded With KDE's Active Plasma Interface
Specs matter to those of us who neither want to waste time or money. We're not going to buy a device for the sake of being able to have a Linux tablet. There will be $250 quad-core 7" android tablets with beautiful IPS multitouch panels and 1080P megapixel cameras. This Aseigo Linux tablet has comparable specs to a $99 7" Android tablet on the market today.

Comment Celsius is just as arbitrary as Fahrenheit (Score 1) 1367

by George_Ou (#38855791) Attached to: Don't Worry About Global Warming, Say 16 Scientists in the WSJ
Hell, even Kelvins are arbitrary to some extent but the size of the unit based on the gap between frozen and boiling water at "Standard Temperature and Pressure". Celsius doesn't even accurately reflect heat and plenty of smart people who should know better routinely believe that 32C is twice as hot as 16C when it's actually 305.15C to be twice as hot.

Metric system for geometric measurements do have advantages for humans who evolved with 10 fingers and decided to use a number system with base 10. But even then, carpenters tell me that 12 is a much nicer split than 10 because it is divisible four ways while 10 is only divisible in two ways.

Comment Re:Corruption. (Score 2) 153

by George_Ou (#38746666) Attached to: Google Fiber Work Hung Up In Kansas City
Do you honestly think I'm making up the cost of underground fiber? What you're describing isn't even all that clear and it sounds like there is already conduit in place to pull fiber. If there is no conduit, you have to dig and build conduit.

Moreover, your copper is no different than our copper and the same physics applies. The same throughput of VDSL2 applies everywhere in the world. The difference is that in addition to the copper phone wires, we have a lot more cable coax competition in addition to a whole lot more fiber to the home.

Comment Re:Resistance? What resistance? (Score 4, Informative) 153

by George_Ou (#38745906) Attached to: Google Fiber Work Hung Up In Kansas City
Did you even read the article? Oh wait, this is slashdot.

The article talks about unequal treatment. One provider offers the same public service as Google, but they're not getting special treatment and free access to the facilities. Then there's the issue of higher costs associated with hanging fiber near electrical wiring. You don't want your workers or customers getting fried, so there will be additional costs.
Bug

Apache Flaw Allows Internal Network Access 99

Posted by samzenpus from the protect-ya-neck dept.
angry tapir writes "A yet-to-be-patched flaw discovered in the Apache HTTP server allows attackers to access protected resources on the internal network if some rewrite rules are not defined properly. The vulnerability affects Apache installations that operate in reverse proxy mode, a type of configuration used for load balancing, caching and other operations that involve the distribution of resources over multiple servers."

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