633076
story
Anonymous Coward writes
"After 8 years of effort, InPhase Technologies is shipping the world's first holographic disk drive next month. They showed it at this week's NAB. With a 300GB 5.25" disk cartridge and a 50-year media life, the Tapestry 300r is aimed at the video and film archive market. They've been promising this thing for so long I'd given up hope that they'd ever ship it!"
533750
submission
schi0244 writes:
I (and others, I assume) have been skeptical of the true reasons that the US Military has destroyed the descending, inoperable, rogue spy satellite last night. I think that in all of the coverage of this story on the Internet and TV, I have yet to see an instance where the actual launch of the spy satellite was questioned. I make the following propositions about the launch itself & welcome community feedback:
- The Satellite was never meant to be operational,
- The Satellite was never meant to stay in orbit,
- The Satellite was launched with the intention that it be the penultimate test of the US National Missile Defense program against a strategic nuclear weapon,
- That the US National Missile Defense program has perfected the targeting system,
- The Satellite's approximated cost (not including delivery) has been overstated by the US Military and
- The difference between the true, classified cost and approximated cost is actually is an examplar of how US Intelligence agencies like the National Reconnaissance Office are able to hide their real expenditures.
FYI: The entire shoot down operation apparently cost approximately $40-60 Million (including a $10 Million Raytheon missile). Refer to point #6 for why it may have cost this much.
533628
submission
Akosmian writes:
I engage in risk behavior. First by using XP and then by installing software from questionable sources and surfing questionable sites. I do all this from my laptop, which I use for 90% all computing activity. Yes, I can clean up my act and use a better OS. But that can be boring. Sometimes, I want to do what I want to do, hopefully without consequence (let the flame begin!).
What setups are out there that will allow me, when I am feeling the urge to break security protocol, to create in short-order a fresh stripped down and disposable install of XP?
I welcome the use of any technologies which will work on my 2006 laptop.
(laptop reinstall imminent)
532764
story
holy_calamity writes
"Academics researching how technology addiction affects businesses and employees say 'habit-forming' gadgets like Blackberries should be dispensed along with warnings about the effect they can have on your life. 'We don't want to be in a situation in a few years similar to that with fast food or tobacco today. We need to pay attention to how people react to potentially habit-forming technologies.'"
531720
submission
An anonymous reader writes:
CNET.co.uk is running a great feature about movie technology it wants made now, including light cycles from Tron, the Transporter from Star Trek and the hoverboard from Back to The Future Part II. "Watching Michael J Fox ride a hoverboard in Back to The Future Part II inspired a whole generation. It's 'supposed' to come to market in 2015 and we sincerely hope it does, because the Segway just doesn't do it for us." If you could choose any movie technology to become a reality, what would it be and why?
531256
submission
CaptainTofu writes:
I had a discussion with my co-worker about the HD format war and how I was glad that Blu-ray won over HD DVD, and he seemed somewhat indifferent. He went as far as to say that he wouldn't have minded if the format war never ended because the competition would be good for the market. He brought up how Apple competes with Microsoft, Coke versus Pepsi, etc. I couldn't come up with a good reason why the HD format war was a bad thing other than that it prevented many buyers from investing in one format over the other. My questions are: Is having Blu-ray being the winner necessarily a good thing for consumers besides the obvious? Do we not want to have the competition to bring prices down and better end products? I'm hoping for a winning argument that supports Blu-ray's victory as being good for the market!
531134
submission
pcause writes:
Google gets a lot of press and praise for their policy that allows workers to spend a day a week working on their own interesting ideas and projects. It all sounds so generous, but I wonder. Is this a way for Google to keep folks from leaving for startups by getting them to explore ideas on Google's time that Google now owns?
Most companies, and I assume Google is no different, have an employee agreement that assigns anything an employees invents/works on during employment that is relevant to their job to the employer. So if you explore something using your one day, it is work related and Google owns it and you can't leave and start a company based on that idea/work, can you? If you did this as a project at home on your own time, you'd own the ideas and code.
Of course, Google will say this isn't what they mean to do and won't sue folks and all the other good PR stuff, but unless they change the employee IP assignment agreement, it doesn't mean anything. "Evil is as evil does"
