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Comment Who uses Boxee as a social media tool? (Score 2) 56

by TheRedDuke (#35324646) Attached to: Boxee Box Matures; Another Look At the Platform
The HotHardware article touts the social media aspect and the ability to share, but honestly, out of the dozen or so friends/coworkers I know that use the service (no one I know has the Box), not a single one even bothers with those features. Is my circle just off-base, or is it really as pointless as I suspect?

Comment Late to the Party (Score 3, Funny) 86

by TheRedDuke (#35249988) Attached to: Sony Unveils First PlayStation Phone
This is about two years too late, Sony. And while you were busy trying to pedal the Go, your chief competitor was putting tens of millions of their units in consumers' hands and building an impressive library of inexpensive games.

Oh, just got a phone call on my iPhone. Nokia and Palm want to know if you're free tonight.
Announcements

Submission + - Tech salaries remain flat 2 years running (networkworld.com)

Submitted by jbrodkin
jbrodkin writes: Tech workers pulled in an average of $79,384 last year, an increase of 0.7% over 2009. It was the "second straight year of nearly flat salaries," according to Dice.com, the online job site which surveyed nearly 20,000 tech pros in North America between Aug. 31 and Nov. 15. Silicon Valley is making a comeback, though, with average salaries approaching six figures. While overall tech salaries improved slightly, technology professionals just entering the field now can expect to make less than if they got their first jobs a few years ago. "For the second straight year, the average salaries of technology professionals with less than two years' experience have declined, and are six percent below their peak average wages in 2008," Dice said. Silicon Valley is a bright spot, with tech workers getting a 3% salary increase to $99,028, after a decline the previous year. Several fields within high-tech are offering average salaries in the six-figure range. Advanced business application programming, for example, clocks in at $105,887. But the most in-demand skills are Oracle; J2EE/Java; and C, C++, C#.

Submission + - Motorola sticks to guns on locking down Android (androidcentral.com)

Submitted by jeffmeden
jeffmeden writes: "These aren't the droids you're looking for" proclaims Motorola, maker of the popular Android smartphones such as the Droid 2 and Droid X. At least, not if you have any intention of loading a customized operating system, according to Motorola's own Youtube channel used to show off upcoming products. Motorola:"@tdcrooks if you want to do custom roms, then buy elsewhere, we'll continue with our strategy that is working thanks." The strategy they are referring to is a feature Motorola pioneered called "e-fuse", the ability for the phone's CPU to stop working if it detects unauthorized software running. More information available via a story at Android blog site AndroidCentral
Space

Submission + - Canadian firm plans 78-satellite Net service (cnet.com) 1

Submitted by matty619
matty619 writes: A CNET article is reporting on another try at low earth orbit satellites for internet access, reminiscent of Teledesic, an ill fated $9Billion Bill Gates/Paul Alen et al venture originally consisting of 840 low earth orbit satellites (LEO-SAT).

MSCI, which stands for Microsat Systems Canada Inc., is trying to be a bit of a maverick with its project, called CommStellation. The company said today that its approach of using small, inexpensive satellites in low orbit--about 620 miles above the Earth--means better coverage of the world's population, quicker launch, and better network capacity.

Specifically, the company is able to use more ordinary electronics with its lower-elevation satellites. Medium orbit satellites--about 5,000 miles above Earth--such as rival O3b need components with higher reliability in order to withstand the temperature and radiation rigors of space. MSCI's satellites are also relatively small, meaning that 14 can be packed into a single launch rocket compared with O3b's 4 satellites. And much less power is required to transmit data to and from the MSCI's satellites since they're closer to Earth.

Each MSCI satellite has a data-transfer capacity of 12 gigabits per second. The expected lifespan of each is 10 years, and they can be sent back into the atmosphere at the end of their lives to avoid more orbital clutter.
NASA

Submission + - US Supreme Court says NASA background checks OK (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: In a long-running dispute about privacy and security, the US Supreme Court today sided with NASA saying its background checks were not invasive and that the information required for not only NASA but most government positions was a reasonable security precaution and that sufficient privacy safeguards existed to prevent any improper disclosures. You may recall that in this case, 28 scientists and engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory filed suit against the US government and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2007 saying that NASA's invasive background investigations as required by government regulations.
Censorship

Submission + - World of Starcraft Mod Gets C&D from Blizzard (pixelatedgeek.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: If you've been following the team who created World of Starcraft (an amazing mod of Starcraft to be more like World of Warcraft), their youtube video of what they've done so far has already resulted in a cease and desist from Activision/Blizzard. Evidently when you are given tools to make custom mods to games you should be careful about making something too good. The author of the mod is hopeful that it's just a trademark problem with the name of his mod but few details are out.

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