Comment Re:Change.... (Score 2) 268
The DoJ is the part of the executive branch tasked with enforcing the law. Completely separate from the Judicial Branch of government.
Comment Re:Glad I don't have a smartphone (Score 1) 406
Looks like the breakdown of frequencies based on carrier is as follows:
AT&T: 850/1900 GSM (mostly 850), and HSPDA (3G) 1900 TMobile: 850/1900 GSM (mostly 1900), and WCDMA (3G) 1700 Verizon: 850/1900 CDMA2000, and EVDO (3G) 1900 Sprint: 1900 CDMA2000, and EVDO(3G) 1900
The other GSM frequencies used outside the US are 900 and 1800 bands.
The N900 looks like it is a quad band (850/900/1800/1900) GSM radio, as well as a tri-band (900/1700/2100) UMTS radio. Data Source
AT&T: 850/1900 GSM (mostly 850), and HSPDA (3G) 1900 TMobile: 850/1900 GSM (mostly 1900), and WCDMA (3G) 1700 Verizon: 850/1900 CDMA2000, and EVDO (3G) 1900 Sprint: 1900 CDMA2000, and EVDO(3G) 1900
The other GSM frequencies used outside the US are 900 and 1800 bands.
The N900 looks like it is a quad band (850/900/1800/1900) GSM radio, as well as a tri-band (900/1700/2100) UMTS radio. Data Source
Comment Re:That does look cool (Score 2, Informative) 156
I've had one of these RAT7 mice for a month or two now, and so far the build quality is very nice. The different pieces screw in with a little hex driver that actually lives in the bottom of the mouse, so you never have to go find it. There's a nice sensitivity rocker button to turn up or down the mouse sensitivity, the main scroll wheel is metal with a nice textured rubber grip band around it. Haven't used the thumb wheel much, and the big red button seems to be able to only be programmed as a modifier button (like to change the function of the other buttons), not as a regular key in of itself.
Overall, I'm greatly satisfied with my purchase.
Comment Re:And... (Score 1) 457
A few weeks ago we had a 7.2 earthquake about 100 miles from San Diego, and there were 0 deaths in the US, and 2 deaths in Mexico. This is another order of magnitude below even the two you listed.
Comment Re:Ignorance, not indifference. (Score 1) 220
The thing that gets me is that most CCs offer a 28 day grace period on interest, not the 30-31 that most months have. Wouldn't that mean that you are being charged 2-3 days of interest each month?
Comment Re:Firefox lite. (Score 1) 464
Privoxy is another nice proxy/ad blocker that works well for Windows (and has support for BSD and Linux to boot). The default settings block most ads, and with a few additions to the well documented config file, can be made to block any other sites or images.
Comment Re:Quick (Score 3, Interesting) 240
Maybe they quick charge a supercapacitor, and then let the supercap slow charge the battery?
Apple Orders 10 Million Tablets? 221
Arvisp writes "According to a blog post by former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee, Apple plans to produce nearly 10 million tablets in the still-unannounced product's first year. If Lee's blog post is to be believed, Apple plans to sell nearly twice as many tablets as it did iPhones in the product's first year."
Report Rips Government Wireless Network Effort 54
coondoggie writes with this excerpt from NetworkWorld:
"Like a bunch of children in a sandbox unable and perhaps unwilling to share their toys, multiple key government agencies cannot or will not cooperate to build a collaborative wireless network. The Government Accountability Office report (PDF) issued today took aim at the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and the Treasury which had intended what's known as The Integrated Wireless Network (IWN) to be a joint radio communications system to improve communication among law enforcement agencies. However IWN, which has already cost millions of dollars, is no longer being pursued as a joint development project, the GAO said. By abandoning collaboration on a joint implementation, the departments risk duplication of effort and inefficient use of resources as they continue to invest significant resources in independent solutions. Further, these efforts will not ensure the interoperability needed to serve day-to-day law enforcement operations or a coordinated response to terrorist or other events, the GAO said."
Windows Cheap Enough For $2B Aussie Laptop Deal 234
An anonymous reader writes "Windows-based netbooks aren't too expensive to be ruled out of the Aussie government's billion dollar promise to give a laptop to every school-aged child, according to several education departments. The admission follows an earlier report that open source machines based on Ubuntu or Mandriva are the only option to deliver up to four million computers to students for under $2 billion. Microsoft itself claimed it will keep costs per unit down by hosting a lot of the educational software in the cloud rather than on the netbook devices."
Feds Can Locate Cell Phones Without Telcos 199
schwit1 sends along an Ars Technica report covering the release of documents obtained under the FOIA suggesting that the Justice Department may have been evading privacy laws in their use of "triggerfish" technology. Triggerfish are cell-tower spoofing devices that induce cell phones to give up their location and other identifying information, without recourse to any cell carrier. "Courts in recent years have been raising the evidentiary bar law enforcement agents must meet in order to obtain historical cell phone records that reveal information about a target's location. But documents obtained by civil liberties groups under a Freedom of Information Act request suggest that 'triggerfish' technology can be used to pinpoint cell phones without involving cell phone providers at all. The Justice Department's electronic surveillance manual explicitly suggests that triggerfish may be used to avoid restrictions in statutes like CALEA that bar the use of pen register or trap-and-trace devices..." The article does mention that the Patriot Act contains language that should require a court order to deploy triggerfish, whereas prior to 2001 "the statutory language governing pen register or trap-and-trace orders did not appear to cover location tracking technology."
Submission + - Defend Network Neutrality and Become a Man 3
RWarrior(fobw) writes: Adult Video News, the news organization for the American porn industry, is reporting that former Belgian Senate candidate and NEE Party leader Tania Derveaux is offering to have sex with any virgin who can prove he's defended network neutrality. She'll even travel at her own expense.
Being a nerd apparently hath its friends with benefits.
Being a nerd apparently hath its friends with benefits.
Comment Re:Maybe the silliest consequence? (Score 1) 121
Lasers and light are indeed made from electromagnetic fields, and do radiate away from the transmission medium (the fiber). This effect is called evanescent wave coupling.
One fiber with photons travelling through it placed next to an empty fiber will generate photonic energy in the empty fiber that matches the phase/frequency/modulation of the original signal. The length of the section of the fibers next to each other determines the percentage of energy transferred. This is how optical couplers/splitters work. See here for more info on this process.
-QMan
One fiber with photons travelling through it placed next to an empty fiber will generate photonic energy in the empty fiber that matches the phase/frequency/modulation of the original signal. The length of the section of the fibers next to each other determines the percentage of energy transferred. This is how optical couplers/splitters work. See here for more info on this process.
-QMan
The $54 Million Laptop 502
Stanislav_J writes "It happens to the best of us: you drop off your laptop at the local branch of some Super Mega Electronics McStore, go to pick it up, and they can't find it. Lost, gone, kaput — probably sucked into a black hole and now breeding with lost airline luggage. It would make any of us mad, but Raelyn Campbell of Washington, D.C. isn't just mad — she's $54 million mad. That's how much she is asking from Best Buy in a lawsuit that seeks 'fair compensation for replacement of the $1,100 computer and extended warranty, plus expenses related to identity theft protection.' Best Buy claims that Ms. Campbell was offered and collected $1,110.35 as well as a $500 gift card for her inconvenience. (I guess that extra 35 cents wasn't enough to sway her.) Her blog claims that Geek Squad employees spent three months telling her different stories about where her laptop might be before finally acknowledging that it had been lost. For those who follow economic trends, this means that a laptop's worth is roughly equivalent to that of a pair of pants."
Submission + - Students Downloading Jihadist Material Acquitted (theregister.co.uk)
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "Five UK students who were charged under the UK's 2000 Terrorism Act for possession of jihadist materials were acquitted after the jury found that, while they had downloaded the materials, there was no evidence that they were planning any sort of crime. The Lord Chief Justice was quoted as saying, 'Difficult questions of interpretation have been raised in this case by the attempt by the prosecution to use [this law] for a purpose for which it was not intended.'"
