jfruhlinger - Slashdot User

Submission + - Intel's Ashlee Simpson moment at CES (itworld.com)

Submitted by bdking on Thursday January 12, 2012 @01:44PM

bdking writes: Remember back in 2004 when Ashlee Simpson appeared on Saturday Night Live and a prerecorded vocal track started playing before the "singer" put the microphone to her mouth? Hilarity ensued. Intel's Mooley Eden, who runs the chipmaker's PC unit, experienced a similar embarrassing moment on the stage this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Fortunately, Eden spared us a clumsy jig.

Submission + - Microsoft Investigates Foxconn Protest (itworld.com)

Submitted by

itwbennett

on Thursday January 12, 2012 @11:38AM

itwbennett writes: "A Microsoft investigation of the worker strike at a Foxconn factory in Wuhan, China has found that the workers weren't threatening to jump from the roof over working conditions, but merely 'staffing assignments and transfer policies' — in other words, workers were upset that they had to choose between taking jobs in other locations versus having no jobs at all. 'Due to regular production adjustments, Foxconn offered the workers the option of being transferred to alternative production lines or resigning and receiving all salary and bonuses due, according to length of service,' Microsoft said in a statement. Well, that makes it all better."

Submission + - How to get unfollowed by me on Twitter (itworld.com)

Submitted by bdking on Thursday January 12, 2012 @10:28AM

bdking writes: Everyone has their own Twitter pet peeves. Here are eight of mine, as well as one that seems to drive many other Twitter users crazy, but doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Submission + - Pro-SOPA Comcast Uses SOPA-Incompatible DNSSEC (itworld.com)

Submitted by

jfruhlinger

on Wednesday January 11, 2012 @05:03PM

jfruhlinger writes: "Since 2009, Comcast subscribers who have accidentally typed a non-existant URL into their web browser have not gotten a 404 error but rather been redirected to a "helpful" page with suggestions on the right URL, along with ads. That page has now vanished as the ISP has implemented DNSSEC, a set of security standards that, among other things, prevents the malicious redirection of DNS requests. But if SOPA passes, ISPs will be forced to redirect requests for blacklisted sites, which violates DNSSEC. And, oh yes, Comcast is an enthusiastic SOPA supporter."

Submission + - Is AT&T Building the Ultimate Walled Garden? (itworld.com)

Submitted by

itwbennett

on Wednesday January 11, 2012 @03:23PM

itwbennett writes: "The announcement earlier this week that AT&T joined OpenStack, was greeted with much fanfare (of the 'woo hoo for open source' variety). But dig into why AT&T decided to sign up for OpenStack and things get a lot more interesting. 'AT&T is about to take on Amazon's EC2 and S2 cloud services, and OpenStack's technology is going to be the engine that drives it,' writes blogger Brian Proffitt. 'Leaving aside the potential problems for user privacy here--and oh, there are many to be addressed to be sure--a plan such as this would represent a stunning coup for AT&T, since they would be able to provide the one thing Apple and Google have not been able to have in their respective plans to own the entire stack: the network on which all communications must flow.'"

Submission + - Reddit turning SOPA 'blackout' into a 'learn-in' (itworld.com)

Submitted by bdking on Wednesday January 11, 2012 @02:11PM

bdking writes: Reddit's planned 12-hour "blackout" on January 18 sounds like an ineffectual, if not self-defeating, strategy for opposing the Stop Online Piracy Act. But the social news site actually will use that time not to "go dark," but to educate visitors about the ramifications of the House legislation that many fear will lead to widespread shutdowns of Internet sites.

Submission + - A Cheat Sheet To CES' Interesting Mobile News (itworld.com)

Submitted by

jfruhlinger

on Wednesday January 11, 2012 @01:12PM

jfruhlinger writes: "Every year at CES, technophiles are overwhelmed by a wide array of shiny gadgets, most of which are oversold and end up flopping. Kevin Purdy cuts through the hype and presents the few areas of genuine interest for mobile tech at CES 2012, including Intel's Android phones and stirrings of interest in Windows Mobile."

Submission + - US Ejects Diplomat For Planning Cyberattacks (itworld.com)

Submitted by

jfruhlinger

on Tuesday January 10, 2012 @10:22PM

jfruhlinger writes: "A Venezuelan consul in Miami has been ejected from the United States, and the reasons why are serious: she's been accused of participating in an Iranian plot to launch cyberattacks on U.S. nuclear plants. Diplomats have immunity from prosecution, which is probably the only reason she isn't in jail."

Submission + - Qualcomm Wants A Piece Of The PC Market (itworld.com)

Submitted by

jfruhlinger

on Tuesday January 10, 2012 @06:18PM

jfruhlinger writes: "Much of Intel's story of the past few years has involved its so far fruitless attempts to break into the smartphone and tablet market. But as it keeps trying, it may find competition on its home turf: Qualcomm, which makes many of the ARM-based chips in those smartphones and tablets, wants to make PCs, too. The advent of Windows 8 for ARM and Android will make this possible."

Submission + - Is there a doctor in the house? WebMD share fall (itworld.com)

Submitted by bdking on Tuesday January 10, 2012 @03:18PM

bdking writes: Shares of medical information site WebMD plunged as much as 32% on Tuesday after the company announced revenue for 2012 would be lower than expected and that its CEO has resigned. Call 911!

Submission + - Oracle, Cloudera Team Up on Hadoop Appliance (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by LinuxScribe on Tuesday January 10, 2012 @10:00AM

LinuxScribe writes: Oracle has announced a new Big Data Appliance, which will feature Cloudera's Hadoop, shiny hardware, and a price tag that could be more affordable than commodity servers. But Oracle's new Cloudera partner should heed the lessons of Red Hat and what it means to partner with Oracle.

Submission + - Data Hogs: The Monsters Carriers Created (itworld.com)

Submitted by

jfruhlinger

on Monday January 09, 2012 @05:03PM

jfruhlinger writes: "A recent study claimed that the top 1 percent of mobile data users eat up 25 percent of the available bandwidth. But assuming it's true, who's at fault? Stats show that data usage has increased radically with each new model of the iPhone, and similar phenomenon are in place for Android phones — all of which are gleefully sold to the public by the same people who complain about 'data hogs.' Isn't this the equivalent of a car dealer that heavily promotes Cadillacs, then complains about poor fuel efficiency, then charges a ton for extra gasoline?"

Submission + - Samsung Could Soon Start to Twist Google's Arm

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens writes

on Monday January 09, 2012 @04:34PM

Hugh Pickens writes writes: "For the past three years, Android has experienced a kind of free space expansion but as we enter 2012, it seems the game may be changing. Instead of the old “there’s more than enough room for every Android handset maker to be a winner”, we have a three-horse’s-length leader, Samsung shipping close to 55% of all Android phones, while Motorola and HTC lag behind. "[Samsung] could be in a position to twist Google’s arm," writes Jean-Louis Gassée."If last quarter’s trend continues — if Motorola and HTC lose even more ground — Samsung’s bargaining position will become even stronger." But what is Samsung’s ‘‘bargaining position’’? What could they want? Perhaps more search referral money, earlier access to Android releases, or a share of advertising revenue. Will Google let Samsung gain the upper hand? It's not likely because Motorola is about to become a fully-owned but “independent” Google subsidiary that with 16% of the android market could counterbalance Samsung’s influence to some extent. So what could Samsung do? "Consider the Kindle Fire example: Just like Amazon picked the Android lock, Samsung could grab the Android Open Source code and create its own unlicensed but fully legal smartphone OS and still benefit from a portion of Android apps, or it could build its own app store the way Amazon did," writes Gassée. "Samsung is a tough, determined fighter and won’t let Google dictate its future. The same can be said of Google. This is going to be interesting.""

Submission + - Michael Dell: Mobile Gadgets No Threat To PCs (itworld.com)

Submitted by

jfruhlinger

on Monday January 09, 2012 @04:32PM

jfruhlinger writes: "In a pitch that might qualify as "no duh" news, Michael Dell, CEO of a company that makes lots of money from PCs and has tried and largely failed to break into the smartphone and tablet market, told an audience in India that smartphones and tablets don't threaten PC sales. It's a particularly important question in India, where many users buy smartphones rather than PCs because they're cheaper; Dell believes that such users will eventually switch to PCs for a fuller Internet experience."

Submission + - Why Lamar Smith Won't Hear SOPA Critics (itworld.com)

Submitted by

itwbennett

on Monday January 09, 2012 @01:49PM

itwbennett writes: "House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, who has unapologetically excluded tech experts from testifying about SOPA, now explains why: 'The criticism of this bill is completely hypothetical; none of it is based in reality. Not one of the critics was able to point to any language in the bill that would in any way harm the Internet. Their accusations are simply not supported by any facts,' Smith said in a statement."

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