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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."

Comment Re:It is not new. (Score 2, Informative) 349

by sh00z (#48695583) Attached to: United and Orbitz Sue 22-Year-Old Programmer For Compiling Public Info
This is just about the most selfish, self-centered, obnoxious behavior I can imagine. I was a passenger on one of these flights in October. Our departure from SFO was delayed by 30 minutes because a "through" passenger was missing. Sure, *you* get a cheaper ticket, as the cost of inconveniencing the airline and 150 other people. This asshat shouldn't just be sued by the airlines; I'd be willing to join a class-action suit. If you want to try this crap, you better make sure it's not just a layover--that it's a plane change, and you *don't* check in for that last leg. Or, on return, that you only check in at the point where you actually plan to board.

Comment Re:Stone Age diet ? he wants to live all 20 years? (Score 1) 441

by sh00z (#48659773) Attached to: How Venture Capitalist Peter Thiel Plans To Live 120 Years

Isn't HGH illegal unless it's prescribed by a doctor for a specific medical condition? This sounds like a [at best] "I paid a doctor a bunch of money to prescribe it for me" situation.

The word "illegal" applies only to sheeple. This guy's a fucking Randian superman: he's going to live forever, he's paid his guys to find a cure for cancer and his primary residence is almost certainly inside a hollowed out volcano.

He's going to live as long as he can afford bodyguards. I can't believe that this joker doesn't comprehend the intrinsic disconnect between being able to stay healthy until the age of 120, and simultaneously escalating class warfare through "no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons."
Earth

How a Massachusetts Man Invented the Global Ice Market 83

Posted by samzenpus from the keeping-it-cool dept.
An anonymous reader writes with the story of Frederic Tudor, the man responsible for the modern food industry. "A guy from Boston walks into a bar and offers to sell the owner a chunk of ice. To modern ears, that sounds like the opening line of a joke. But 200 years ago, it would have sounded like science fiction—especially if it was summer, when no one in the bar had seen frozen water in months. In fact, it's history. The ice guy was sent by a 20-something by the name of Frederic Tudor, born in 1783 and known by the mid-19th century as the "Ice King of the World." What he had done was figure out a way to harvest ice from local ponds, and keep it frozen long enough to ship halfway around the world.

Today, the New England ice trade, which Tudor started in Boston's backyard in 1806, sounds cartoonishly old-fashioned. The work of ice-harvesting, which involved cutting massive chunks out of frozen bodies of water, packing them in sawdust for storage and transport, and selling them near and far, seems as archaic as the job of town crier. But scholars in recent years have suggested that we're missing something. In fact, they say, the ice trade was a catalyst for a transformation in daily life so powerful that the mark it left can still be seen on our cultural habits even today. Tudor's big idea ended up altering the course of history, making it possible not only to serve barflies cool mint juleps in the dead of summer, but to dramatically extend the shelf life and reach of food. Suddenly people could eat perishable fruits, vegetables, and meat produced far from their homes. Ice built a new kind of infrastructure that would ultimately become the cold, shiny basis for the entire modern food industry."
The Media

Skeptics Would Like Media To Stop Calling Science Deniers 'Skeptics' 719

Posted by Soulskill from the intellectual-brand-recognition dept.
Layzej writes: Prominent scientists, science communicators, and skeptic activists, are calling on the news media to stop using the word "skeptic" when referring to those who refuse to accept the reality of climate change, and instead refer to them by what they really are: science deniers. "Not all individuals who call themselves climate change skeptics are deniers. But virtually all deniers have falsely branded themselves as skeptics. By perpetrating this misnomer, journalists have granted undeserved credibility to those who reject science and scientific inquiry."

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