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Television

Submission + - Comcast decrees "You will watch our TV or pay!

Submitted by
PortHaven
PortHaven writes: "Just received a notice from Comcast regarding future rate hikes. Essentially, Comcast is trying to force all it's broadband subscribers to use their TV service.

The rates were as follows:

$39.95 internet+TV
$49.95 internet only ($39.95+$10 additional fee)

The new rates for 2007 are as follows:

$42.95 internet+TV
$59.95 internet only

There is nearly a 40% cost difference if you decide not to subscribe to Comcast's TV. Yes, it is common to offer discounts for bundled services but Comcast has gone way beyond a mere bundle discount. The new pricing scheme is akin to McDonald's announcing that you can no longer buy a hamburger unless you also buy a coke and fries. Everyone understands the concept of the value meal. Buy a #1 and save 70 cents on your big mac, fries and coke. But what Comcast is doing is charging $7 for a #1 value meal. And if you just want to buy a big mac charging you the same $7.

Essentially, this pricing is designed to prevent customer from moving to alternatives. Now any difference in savings you'd gain by using satellite TV + cable internet is lost because there is now a $20 surchage. Presently, my household does not own a TV or subscribe to TV service instead we utilize Netflix and iTunes. The only real alternative to cable broadband is DSL. However, the telephone companies require you to have a landline (approx. $20). I, like many others in the younger generations have found no need for a landline (our cell phones do quite nicely) nor for TV service.

It appears I have no choice but to choose one or the other if I want broadband internet access. It's Monopoly! Do you choose to land on Boardwalk or Park Place?"
Microsoft

Submission + - Free Domain Name and Hosting From Microsoft

Submitted by
Marc
Marc writes: "Signup for a free "Office Live Basic" account, and get a free domain name and hosting. Offers 500MB of web space, and includes up to 25 email accounts with 2GB of storage each. Also includes "Easy-to-use Web site design tools". Of course, IE is required to sign up, and a credit card is required for validation purposes."
Biotech

Submission + - Army Cuts Future Soldier-Docs Lose Future Surgery

Submitted by
docinthemachine
docinthemachine writes: "US Army has decided to axe it's $500 Million (so far) Land Warrior Soldier of the Future program. If this goes through the fallout loss of future medical technology under development will be enormous. many do not realize the enormous amount of medical technology that trickles down from the military. The program develops new HMD's and 3D vision systems and bioarmor. Surgeons today are using this technology (via DARPA) to develop new robotic surgery, bioimplants, intellegent prosthetics and more. Docinthemachine reports on the magnitude of surgical hi tech toys that will be lost if the program gets cut at: http://docinthemachine.com/2006/12/08/army-axing-h igh-tech-soldier-of-tomorrow-medtech-losses-predic ted/"
Biotech

Submission + - Biodiesel from grasslands

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers at the University of Minnesota find that mixtures of grasses make the best biodiesel. Added bonus, the process is carbon negative, i.e. more carbon is stored in the ground than cycled in the atmosphere. It's no panacea, but:


"we estimate that biofuels produced on the degraded lands of Earth could [meet] 13% of global needs and simultaneously produce electricity that met 19% of global needs".
Businesses

The BlackBerry Orphans 228

Posted by Zonk from the dad-daddy-mommy-lol'd-at-me dept.
theodp writes "The WSJ reports that the growing use of email gadgets is spawning a generation of resentful children. In addition to feeling neglected, kids fear BlackBerrys and Treos can put their lives in jeopardy as Mom and Dad type away while driving." From the article: "Like teenagers sneaking cigarettes behind school, parents are secretly rebelling against the rules. The children of one New Jersey executive mandate that their mom ignore her mobile email from dinnertime until their bedtime. To get around their dictates, the mother hides the gadget in the bathroom, where she makes frequent trips before, during and after dinner. The kids 'think I have a small bladder,' she says. She declined to be named because she's afraid her 12- and 13-year-old children might discover her secret."
Slashdot.org

Journal Journal: Moderation

Journal by amightywind

Having burned karma in the past few months in defending my views on President Bush, the war in Iraq, global warming, stem cell research, and other subjects on which I hold minority opinions, I got discouraged and moved over to digg.com. There are many features about the slashdot system I miss. Direct links to all comments, friends and foes, and even this journal. What I despise are the story submission process and the moderation system, both for the same reason. Slashdot is run by an unaccoun
Announcements

Submission + - NASA announcement re: 'significant' water on Mars

Submitted by gp310ad
gp310ad writes: WASHINGTON — NASA hosts a news briefing at 1 p.m. EST, Wednesday, Dec. 6, to present new science results from the Mars Global Surveyor. The briefing will take place in the NASA Headquarters auditorium located at 300 E Street, S.W. in Washington and carried live on NASA Television and www.nasa.gov.
United States

Submission + - FBI can now access your cell phone remotely

Submitted by
alen
alen writes: "http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/12/can_yo u_hear_me.html

I read this on another forum. In their investigation of a Mafia family the FBI was able to access their cell phones remotely and turn them into microphones when their traditional bugging devices were discovered. The only way to defeat this is to take the battery out of your cell phone. Even turning it off doesn't prevent this."
Patents

Submission + - Brit IP Review Released

Submitted by
damaskedmarvel
damaskedmarvel writes: "The long awaited Gowers Review of Intellectual Property in the United Kingdom has been released in the past hour. The Report argues that in the modern world, the UK's economic competitiveness is increasingly driven by knowledge-based industries, innovation and creativity. Intellectual Property (IP) — protecting and promoting innovation — has never been more important. Whilst the Review concludes that the UK has a fundamentally strong IP system, it sets out important targeted reforms. The Chancellor, announcing the proposed reforms stated that the aims are to: — strengthen enforcement of IP rights to protect the UK's creative industries from piracy and counterfeiting; — provide additional support for British businesses using IP in the UK and abroad; and — strike the right balance to encourage firms and individuals to innovate and invest in new ideas while ensuring that markets remain competitive and that future innovation is not impeded. The press release and PDF of the full report are available here"
Slashdot.org

Submission + - Is /. to political and FUD'ish for it's own good?

Submitted by
nb
nb writes: "People seem to believe that since the late 2001 the articles on Slashdot have become too political and FUD'ish for nerds. Shall we ignore everything except technology news, get rid of the Politics section and return to our old style? Do we really need the visits of people who only come here for politics and FUD? How about a poll?"
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Gaming Hardware sells over 3.2 million in November

Submitted by Ground Glass
Ground Glass writes: While there wasn't any question that November was going to be a huge month for gaming (what with those two consoles coming out and all), it's still impressive to see the numbers. In short, Nintendo's DS was the big winner with over 600,000 units sold, though the Wii and Xbox 360 also each broke half a million. Convert those numbers into dollars and you're looking at one very fat and happy industry.
Security

Submission + - Apple Quicktime virus on MySpace

Submitted by Spiked_Three
Spiked_Three writes: In the "other vendors have viruses too" dept;

CNet is reporting that an Apple QuickTime flaw is being exploited to attack MySpace users. The attack works for users of Internet Explorer and Firefox, although it has already been disabled for Internet Explorer user. FireFox users are still at risk until Apple fixes QuickTime.
Portables

Submission + - Newcomer in the low-cost PC market

Submitted by
eugeni
eugeni writes: "A Brazilian university (UNESP) had introduced yesterday a low cost PC, with functionality similar to OLPC and Intel Classmate, but desenvolved on its own. First reports appeared in the media in the beginning on this week, but in Portuguese only yet. According to the project coordinators, the "Cowboy" — that is the name of the device — offers similar functionality to Intel Classmate and OLPC, at a cost of about US$ 250. The device features a completely new interface, uses 400MHz RISC processor, 128MB of RAM, 7' color display, wired and wireless networks support and runs Windows CE. The device also features UPNP support, so different machines are able to locate each other on automatically. First reports of the project are available at http://www.unesp.br/int_noticia_imgdir.php?artigo= 1963 and http://www.ltia.fc.unesp.br/cowboy/; it also appeared in the newspapers this week."

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