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Canada

Ontario Government Wants To Regulate the Internet 184

Posted by samzenpus from the I-wanna-be-in-charge dept.
An anonymous reader writes This afternoon, the Ontario government appeared before the CRTC as part of its future of television hearing. Michael Geist reports that it issued a clear call for new regulation of so-called new media companies such as Netflix and Google. The government states: "In order to create a more level playing field, the ministry recommends decreasing this regulatory imbalance. The ministry believes the best way to accomplish this is to expand the regulation of new media TV, rather than by lightening the current regulation of traditional TV." What does the expansion of regulation involve? For the Ontario government, it includes regulating foreign online video services such as Google and Netflix, but exempting Canadian services.
Science

Giant Dinosaur Unearthed In Argentina 85

Posted by samzenpus from the we're-going-to-need-a-bigger-rock-hammer dept.
sciencehabit writes Researchers working in Argentina have discovered the most complete skeleton of a titanosaur, a group of gigantic plant-eating dinosaurs that dominated the Southern Hemisphere beginning about 90 million years ago. The new dino, named Dreadnoughtus schrani, was 26 meters long and weighed about 59 metric tons—that is, twice as long as Tyrannosaurus rex and as heavy as a herd of elephants. That puts it on a par with other well-known giants such as Argentinosaurus (but it's four times as large as the perhaps better known Diplodocus). The researchers say that the beast was so big it would have had no fear of predators. And it was about to get bigger: A close examination of the fossils, especially its back and shoulder bones, indicates that the animal was still growing when it died.
Government

Oregon Suing Oracle Over Obamacare Site, But Still Needs Oracle's Help 116

Posted by samzenpus from the I-hate-you-now-help-me dept.
jfruh writes Oracle and the state of Oregon are in the midst of a particularly nasty set of lawsuits over the botched rollout of Oregon's health care exchange site, with Oregon claiming that Oracle promised an "out-of-the-box solution" and Oracle saying that Oregon foolishly attempted to act as its own systems integrator. But one aspect of the dispute helps illustrate an unpleasant reality of these kinds of disputes: even as Oregon tries to extract damages from Oracle, it still needs Oracle's help to salvage the site.

Comment Re:Put it this way (Score 1) 789

...most of the First World countries are going to immediately join forces to invade and permanently occupy Russia....

What would be the point in doing that instead of just using economic power to drive Russia back into the economic stone age like North Korea? Sure, Russia has petrobucks but its fragile economy is only a little larger than Canada's. A strict economic embargo would destroy it.
Software

Apple Reveals the Most Common Reasons That It Rejects Apps 132

Posted by timothy from the too-fat-too-thin-too-talkative dept.
mrspoonsi writes One of the great mysteries of the App Store is why certain apps get rejected and why others don't. Apple has let a surprising number of ripoffs and clones through the store's iron gates, yet some developers face rejection for seemingly innocent apps. "Before you develop your app, it's important to become familiar with the technical, content, and design criteria that we use to review all apps," explains Apple on a new webpage called "Common App Rejections." Rejections include: Apple and our customers place a high value on simple, refined, creative, well thought through interfaces. They take more work but are worth it. Apple sets a high bar. If your user interface is complex or less than very good, it may be rejected; Apps that contain false, fraudulent or misleading representations or use names or icons similar to other Apps will be rejected.
Cloud

Apple Said To Team With Visa, MasterCard On iPhone Wallet 187

Posted by samzenpus from the pay-your-way dept.
An anonymous reader writes with news about a possible partnership between Apple and major credit card companies. Apple plans to turn its next iPhone into a mobile wallet through a partnership with major payment networks, banks and retailers, according a person familiar with the situation. The agreement includes Visa, MasterCard, and American Express and will be unveiled on Sept. 9 along with the next iPhone, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. The new iPhone will make mobile payment easier by including a near-field communication chip for the first time, the person said. That advancement along with Touch ID, a fingerprint recognition reader that debuted on the most recent iPhone, will allow consumers to securely pay for items in a store with the touch of a finger.
United Kingdom

Watch UK Inventor Colin Furze Survive a Fireworks Blast In a Metal Suit 54

Posted by timothy from the could-substitute-cherry-bombs-in-the-basement dept.
Nerval's Lobster writes Labor Day is nigh, and with it the official end of summer. It's time to pack away the umbrellas and beach towels, and perhaps spend a few minutes flipping through photos of all the fun times you had over the past couple months: the grilling, the trips, the fireworks oh yes, the fireworks Chances are pretty good that you've set off more than a few fireworks in your time. But Colin Furze, the British inventor and YouTube celebrity who once co-hosted Sky1's Gadget Geeks? Well, he puts everybody's love of fireworks to shame. He loves fireworks so much, in fact, that he built a giant metal suit so he could stand in the middle of an epic pyrotechnic display. No matter how good your own engineering skills (or strong your courage), it's inadvisable to try this at home. But it's sure fun to watch.
Earth

Drought Inspires a Boom In Pseudoscience, From Rain Machines To 'Water Witches' 266

Posted by timothy from the hi-cousin-barry dept.
merbs (2708203) writes Across drought-stricken California, farmers are desperate for water. Now, many of them are calling dowsers. These "water witches," draped in dubious pseudoscience or self-assembled mythologies—or both—typically use divining rods and some sort of practiced intuition to "find" water. The professional variety do so for a fee. And business is booming. They're just part of a storied tradition of pseudoscientific hucksters exploiting our thirst for water, with everything from cloudbusters to rainmachines to New Age rituals.

Comment Re:Is Debian/Hurd not an Operating System ? (Score 1) 727

by Tough Love (#47721859) Attached to: Linus Torvalds: 'I Still Want the Desktop'

Actually I have a background in writing low level kernels, in porting c runtime environments to these custom environments. I know about memory management from the hardware up.

Then how could you possibly have confused operating system level memory management with garbage collecting? I am not sure that I would want you working on the Linux kernel, certainly not on the core.

What I don't have is an overly narrow concept of operating systems, a viewpoint stuck on some quiz once taken in an operating system class that expected a student to regurgitate a 1970s list of OS components.

The term "operating system" was recently coopted by marketdroids and PHBs who have not got the faintest clue of what a timer wheel is, to mean something convenient for Apple and Google's respective business plans. Please go get any operating system text, including a recent one, and you will find that the classic meaning of "operating system" is still the only one taught in the schools that produce our kernel engineers.

Android is no less of an OS for delegating some low level operations to the host linux kernel than a microkernel based OS that delegates some low level functions to its microkernel.

You seem not to grasp the scale, power or subtlty of "some low level operations" that Android relies on the operating system for.

Debian no longer an OS when it delegates low level functions to HURD?

Debian is referred to by Debian developers as a "distribution". That is exactly what Android is, nothing more and nothing less.

Comment Re:Android is not Linux ... (Score 1) 727

by Tough Love (#47721213) Attached to: Linus Torvalds: 'I Still Want the Desktop'

Your definition of an OS is quite narrow, overly so.

manage memory

Check. Android's Java runtime environment does this for applications.

It is a safe bet that you have never had anything to do with operating system design or implementation. Apparently, you do not understand even elementary principles of operating system memory management. So... according to you, how does Java manage the process page tables?

It is people like you who make the world save for marketdroids.

Comment Re:Android is not Linux ... (Score 2) 727

by Tough Love (#47718351) Attached to: Linus Torvalds: 'I Still Want the Desktop'

Android is not based on Linux. Android is **hosted** on Linux, it is really its own operating system.

Complete nonsense. Android is an "operating system" only in market speak. In fact, Android is an application platform, not an operating system. If you doubt me then you need to get an operating system textbook and read for yourself what an operating system actually does. Hint: manage hardware at a low level, presenting a uniform interface for applications; manage memory; schedule execution; enforce security constraints; etc. All of this done by Linux, and not the Android libraries, and much more besides.

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