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Comment Re:As a millenial (Score 1) 261

by sh00z (#49127063) Attached to: The Case Against E-readers -- Why Digital Natives Prefer Reading On Paper

... in the case of the e-reader, you're dramatically more limited as there are fewer memory cues and navigation options of which you can take advantage. For example, you may not have placed a bookmark at a specific section, but you might remember "reading something about that", "close to the middle", "a few pages after that orangish picture near the bottom". With the e-reader, it's a guessing game: "what page was that on?" or "what section was that in" followed by a tedious one-page-at-a-time search. With the hard-copy, it's a couple quick flips along the edge.

We're a long-way from replicating that. I love my kindle, sure, but I always buy a hard-copy of anything I find that's worth-while.

I find the opposite to be true. Typically, I remember a word or phrase, or *fail* to recall a previous appearance of a minor character. The Search function of e-readers makes it dramatically faster to find a partially-recalled passage, or instance of a character's name.
Cellphones

Starting This Week, Wireless Carriers Must Unlock Your Phone 100

Posted by timothy from the better-than-employees-must-wash-hands dept.
HughPickens.com writes Andrew Moore-Crispin reports that beginning today, as result of an agreement major wireless carriers made with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in late 2013, wireless carriers in the US must unlock your phone as soon as a contract term is fulfilled if asked to do so unless a phone is connected in some way to an account that owes the carrier money. Carriers must also post unlocking policies on their websites (here are links for AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile), provide notice to customers when their devices are eligible for unlocking, respond to unlock requests within two business days, and unlock devices for deployed military personnel. So why unlock your phone? Unlocking a phone allows it to be used on any compatible network, regardless of carrier which could result in significant savings. Or you could go with an MVNO, stay on the same network, and pay much less for the same cellular service.

Comment Re:Bad comparaison (Score 1) 135

by sh00z (#48931005) Attached to: The American App Economy Is Now "Bigger Than Hollywood"

They are comparing a global economy (Apps) to a local US market.

If you want to make an Apples to apples comparison (pun intended) when talking about jobs, you'd have to take into account all of the jobs created by European, Bollywood, etc. film industry.

then, you also need to include the other app stores as well (Google Play, Amazon, Windows)
Earth

"Mammoth Snow Storm" Underwhelms 397

Posted by timothy from the blame-uber dept.
mi (197448) writes You heard the scare-mongering, you heard the governors and mayors closing public transit and declaring driving on public roads a crime. But it turned out to have been a mistake. Boston may have been hit somewhat, but further South — NYC and Philadelphia — the snowfall was rather underwhelming. Promised "2-3 feet" of snow, NYC got only a few inches. Is this an example of "better safe than sorry," or is government's overreach justified by questionable weather models exceeding the threshold of an honest mistake?

Comment Re:Color? (Score 1) 426

by sh00z (#48793197) Attached to: Chevrolet Unveils 200-Mile Bolt EV At Detroit Auto Show

I was totally interested until I saw the color they used for their demo. Eww!

On a positive note, I suppose gaudy orange could be considered an anti-theft feature.

It's certainly better than the color that ALL of the Nissan Leaf demos/brochures contained. I saw a black Leaf last week--it's only half as ugly as that blue.
Technology

Thync, a Wearable That Zaps Your Brain To Calm You Down or Amp You Up 154

Posted by Soulskill from the i-saw-that-episode-of-star-trek dept.
blottsie sends this first-hand report on how it felt to use a wearable device called Thync, which sends small amounts of electricity into your brain for the purpose of either calming you down or making you feel energized. While the unit I used isn't the finalized physical version, the best way to describe it is as a two-part device, one of which is fasted to the front of the right side of your temple, and one behind your right ear. It's not a helmet, which is what I absolutely assumed it would be. It's relatively discreet sort of dual patch system ... It didn't... hurt. Hurt isn't the right way to describe it. It felt like a tightness; it felt like the patch was trying to crawl across my skin. But — if you can believe this — in a good way. And while Thync was attached to the right side of my head, occasionally I felt 'tingles' pulling and hitting my brain on the left side and in the middle. I was feeling progressively awake and aware. Granted, I had patches stuck to my head sending gentle vibrations to my brain, so that might have been part of my sudden alertness. But still, after 20 minutes of Thync I just felt... better.
Technology

Gun Rights Hacktivists To Fab 3D-Printed Guns At State Capitol 573

Posted by samzenpus from the from-my-cold-dead-printer dept.
giulioprisco writes On January 13th Come And Take Texas (CATI) will be manufacturing 3D-printed firearms on location at the State Capitol. In 2013 Defense Distributed made public the 3D printable files (STL files) for the world's first fully 3D printable gun. Their more recent Ghost Gunner is designed to automatically manufacture publicly created designs with nearly zero user interaction. According to CATI’s website, “In the last year and a half Texan Gun Rights Groups all around the Lone Star State have walked, assembled, and engaged in Humanitarian efforts all while Open Carrying their Long Guns and Black Powder Pistols. This has succeeded in Educating the Public as well as Law Enforcement, to show that the presence of Firearms in Public is not only Safe but Highly supported.”

Comment Re:And that's still too long (Score 2) 328

Does it sound fair to someone who has never created a single patentable invention in his life? Or written a best-selling novel? Or composed a symphony? Or written a screenplay?

I'm sure it does sound fair to parasites who think they are entitled to other people's work without compensation.

Parasites like Walt Disney, who didn't have to pay a penny for the rights to Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and many others that they continue to withhold from the Public Domain. The Disney Corporation has now held the copyright on their version of "Alice in Wonderland" for more than TWICE as long as Lewis Carroll did for the original work.
Transportation

Out With the Red-Light Cameras, In With the Speeding Cameras 335

Posted by Soulskill from the hurry-up-with-the-driverless-cars dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Have you enjoyed reading the constant flow of news about how red light cameras are failing? They've been installed under the shadow of corruption, they don't increase safety, and major cities are dropping them. Well, the good news is that red-light cameras are on the decline in the U.S. The bad news is that speeding cameras are on the rise. From the article: "The number of U.S. communities using red-light cameras has fallen 13 percent, to 469, since the end of 2012, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a nonprofit scientific and educational organization funded by the insurance industry. That includes the 24 towns in New Jersey that participated in a pilot program that ended this month with no pending legislation to revive it. Meanwhile, the institute estimates that 137 communities use speed cameras, up from 115 at the end of 2011."

Comment Re:It is not new. (Score 1) 349

by sh00z (#48698169) Attached to: United and Orbitz Sue 22-Year-Old Programmer For Compiling Public Info
Not a person who was late--one who was booked all the way through, showed up for the first leg of the flight, and then deplaned at the layover without bothering to inform anyone that he wouldn't be back. Since there's no legitimate reason that such an individual couldn't make it back in time for the second leg, I'm sure the airline had to stop and make sure that (1) the individual wasn't having a coronary in a restroom or smoking lounge somewhere, and (2) that there was no terror threat due to the vanishing (unattended luggage in the cargo bay or cabin).
Businesses

The One Mistake Google Keeps Making 386

Posted by timothy from the starry-eyed-dreamers dept.
HughPickens.com writes Gene Marks writes in Forbes Magazine that Google has brought us innovations that have literally changed our world yet the company continues to make the same mistake over and over. Google's mistake, which it keeps making, is building great products that no one will soon buy. Take Google Glass — a great idea with great technology that demonstrates the future power of the Internet of Things. There's just one problem: no one is buying Google Glass. And now there are driverless cars. After 700,000 miles of open road testing, Google has introduced its "first real build" of its driverless car and it's pretty amazing. But the mistake is the same as with Glass: it's a product without customers. "It's Google assuming that someday someone will actually buy a driverless car," writes Marks. "Not a hobbyist or an eccentric millionaire. But a customer who actually needs or desires a driverless car. Someone who, given the choice of spending $30K on a car that they fully control and can go anywhere they want at any speed they want – or another, likely more expensive buggy that will only travel on certain routes at slower speeds and with less options." Which car would you buy?

For driverless cars to work, to decrease congestion, increase safety, reduce lawsuits and lower our insurance premiums everyone would have to be driving one. For the driverless car system to truly work as desired, there would need to be more centralized control over our entire transportation system, from the roads and highways to the cars we're allowed to use, the speed we're allowed to travel and the places we're allowed to go. This, in the very country where the majority of the population fights against government regulations, red tape and bureaucracy. "But rest assured – Google knows this. They're not looking for short term profits," concludes Marks. "The dreamers behind Google, like the dreamers at Tesla and Virgin Galactic are people who are looking decades ahead."

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