39770499
submission
tad001 writes:
Next month, the 12th World Conference on International Telecommunications, or WCIT-12, will be held in Dubai. At the meeting, the 193 member countries of the U.N.’s International Telecommunications Union, or ITU, will consider renegotiating a fairly obscure treaty known as the International Telecommunication Regulations, or ITRs.
The 24-year-old agreement delineates much of the ITU’s rule-making authority over telecommunications.
The hope of several countries is that they can expand the ITU’s jurisdiction to the Internet, replacing the current governing system with one that is controlled by a U.N. bureaucracy.
37835485
submission
tad001 writes:
There is an article up over at the DailyMail with some interesting tid bits about what the iFixit team found inside their new iPhone 5 like "At least some of the processors inside the iPhone 5 have not come from Samsung" and "Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Broadcom all have components tucked inside."
36394389
submission
courcoul writes:
Under a new presidency and with the directive to switch over to FOSS and/or local development as much as possible, we would like to take control of our current and growing code base. Ancient RCS, SCCS. CVS. SVN. Some other letter soup?
I would like to ask the great Slashdot Collective for their thoughts, tips and recommendations on setting up such a source code management infrastructure AND getting the coders to accept and use it.
36394367
submission
tad001 writes:
The Daily Mail has pictures of Apples new mini connector. The photograph, shared by French tech website nowhereelse.fr, shows two components, one of which is said to be similar to another apparently leaked picture of a part of the new iPhone. As well as the new dock connector, the part also seems to take in the headphone jack and the home button connector for the hotly awaited devices. Read more here.
33668201
submission
tad001 writes:
There is a story up on NBC New York about a Dutch company that wants to start a colony on Mars by 2023. They plan to fund the venture via a reality TV show.
From the article: "In the wake of SpaceX’s first successful commercial mission to the International Space Station last month, Mars One has vowed a much grander feat, according to reports. The firm claims that it will put four people on the red planet every two years beginning in April 2023. By 2033, Mars One boasts there will be 20 colonists on Mars."
The Daily Mail also has an article on the proposed venture.
The kicker, it will be a one way trip. So, would you be willing to trade your green planet for a red one?
33658903
submission
MP7124 writes:
Tom Glinos (7l.com), Geoff Collyer (Bell Labs — Lucent Tech), and David Levy (Shoemaker-Levy 9, Jarnac Observatory) are pleased to announce the naming of asteroids for Dennis Ritchie, and Ken Thompson.
The original Minor Planet Center citations and an orbital animations can be found at: http://news2.7l.com/
They take their place along with other past great scientists in places named for them in the solar system.
Fittingly, these asteroids were discovered and their orbits computed and plotted using primarily UNIX based or derived systems.
32913173
submission
tad001 writes:
Apple is planning to launch an assault against the burgeoning Android tablet market by releasing an 'iPad Mini' — at a loss-making price of around $250, according to new claims.
The bargain-basement priced tablet will even feature the same 'Retina' display featured on its big brother, bringing the same 3.1million pixels to a smaller 7-8" display.
Sources told Apple fansite iMore that the aggressively-priced tablet will launch in October this year, with Apple potentially selling the sub-$250 tablet at a loss in order to leave no room for competition.
iMore and another website, Daring Fireball, have separately heard that Apple has already built the seven-inch device, and the only decision left is whether to 'go to market'.
31238897
submission
tad001 writes:
Some Tom-Tom models are being hit by a leap year bug. From the Tom Tom site models include Start 20/25, Via 120/125, Via LIVE 120/125, GO LIVE 820/825, GO LIVE 1000/1005/1005 World. Perhaps we should switch to picking up X-ray signals from pulsars. So, are stand alone GPS units out of date with the advent of "there's an app for that?
29277955
submission
tad001 writes:
The company (Proview Technology) that owns the iPad trademark in China is trying to block export of the device. Apple says it bought world-wide rights years ago. Last year Apple lost a case in China over trademark ownership with a final high court hearing set for Feb 29th. Will this be an opening for other tablet makers?
More info can be found here, here or here.
29277411
submission
alphadogg writes:
A Georgia Tech researcher's deep dive into some half a million Enron emails could some day result in smarter messaging software. The email database has shed light on which words are used most frequently in messages going up and down the corporate hierarchy. The top 5 "upward predictors" found in the Enron corpus were "the ability to," "I took", "are available", "kitchen"and "thought you would." The value of identifying such words and phrases is that they can be considered reliable indicators of message types, and that kind of insight could be used to develop artificial intelligence-based messaging systems that automatically prioritize emails.
29277343
submission
littlekorea writes:
Australia's Fortescue Metals has ported its applications off VMware vSphere and replaced all of its Cisco switches and routers to protest against licensing price hikes. The company's outspoken CIO is encouraging other tech buyers to revolt whenever vendors can't deliver on service promises.
29273557
submission
Sparrowvsrevolution writes:
In the wake of news that the iPhone app Path uploads users’ entire contact lists without permission, Forbes dug up a study from a group of researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the International Security Systems Lab that aimed to analyze how and where iPhone apps transmit users’ private data. Not only did the researchers find that one in five of the free apps in Apple’s app store upload private data back to the apps’ creators that could potentially identify users and allow profiles to be built of their activities. They also discovered that programs in Cydia, the most popular platform for unauthorized apps that run only on “jailbroken” iPhones, tend to leak private data far less frequently than Apple’s approved apps.
The researchers ran their analysis on 1,407 free apps in the App Store and in Cydia, the unofficial app market for jailbroken phones. Of those tested apps, 21 percent of official App Store apps uploaded the user’s Unique Device Identifier, for instance, compared with only four percent of unauthorized apps.
28374074
submission
tad001 writes:
Google recently changed the way it returns search results with the new algorithm favoring Google+ entries, supposedly to help "personalize" search results. Sure you can "opt out" but shouldn't this be an "opt in" feature? Why do you have to do something to make it work the way you know and love? Check out the article over at digg and see some examples of how 'Search+ Your World' favors Google+ here.
Is anyone considering a switch to some other search engine? Has Bing matured enough to be your new default search?
