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Android

Why 2012 Will Be the Year of the Android Tablet 584

Posted by Soulskill from the we-all-scream-for-ice-cream dept.
lseltzer writes "The iPad has dominated the high-end tablet market so far, but that is about to change. At CES in Las Vegas in a couple weeks you will see tablets running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) everywhere and at prices that will make an iPad a lot harder to justify. The competition from the OEM model in the Android markets will massively shift market share away from Apple, just as it has done in the smart phone market."
Medicine

The Painkiller That Saves Money But Costs Lives 385

Posted by timothy from the while-poppies-burn-in-afghanistan dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Over 2,000 patients have died since 2003 in Washington State alone by accidentally overdosing on a commonly prescribed narcotic painkiller that costs less than a dollar a dose and the deaths are clustered predominately in places with lower incomes because Washington state has steered people with state-subsidized health care — Medicaid patients, injured workers and state employees — to methadone because the drug is cheap. Methadone belongs to a class of narcotic painkillers, called opioids, that includes OxyContin, fentanyl and morphine. Within that group, methadone accounts for less than 10 percent of the drugs prescribed — but more than half of the deaths and although Methadone works wonders for some patients, relieving chronic pain from throbbing backs to inflamed joints, the drug's unique properties make it unforgiving and sometimes lethal. 'Most painkillers, such as OxyContin, dissipate from the body within hours. Methadone can linger for days, pooling to a toxic reservoir that depresses the respiratory system,' write Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong. 'With little warning, patients fall asleep and don't wake up. Doctors call it the silent death.'"
Science

Innovative Use of Plastics Could Cheaply Double Solar Cell Output 141

Posted by timothy from the hot-photon-on-plastic-action dept.
doug141 writes "In standard solar cells, much energy is lost (as heat) from photons mismatched to the capability of silicon to capture them. A new technique uses a pentacene layer to down-convert each hot (un-captureable) electron to two electrons that can be captured by standard silicon cells." You can read more at the University of Texas research group's web page.
Patents

Apple Transfers Patents Through Shell Company To Sue All Phone Makers 422

Posted by Soulskill from the hand-in-cookie-jar dept.
New submitter dell623 writes "A patent lawsuit (PDF) by patent licensing firm Digitude Innovations curiously targeted all mobile manufacturers except Apple. A TechCrunch story has revealed that the patents used were transferred from Apple via a shell company to DI, and appear to cover features found in virtually all smartphones. The lawsuit even extends to companies that don't make Android phones, like Nokia and RIM, and to Android OEMs that Apple have not directly sued yet, like Sony. The business model of DI clearly implies that Apple would benefit financially from the lawsuit as a company that contributed patents to DI's portfolio."
Crime

TSA Facing Death By a Thousand Cuts 493

Posted by Soulskill from the don't-bleed-more-than-3.5-ounces dept.
OverTheGeicoE writes "The Transportation Security Administration is getting a lot of negative attention, much of it from the U.S. government itself. A recent congressional report blasted the TSA for being incompetent and ineffective (PDF). A bill to force the TSA to reduce its screening of active duty U.S. military members and their families was approved unanimously by the House of Representatives. After a TSA employee was arrested for sexually assaulting a woman while in uniform, a bill has been introduced to prevent TSA agents from wearing police-style uniforms and badges or using the title 'officer.' The bill's sponsor calls these practices 'an insult to real cops.' The FBI is getting involved by changing its definition of rape in a way that might expose the TSA's 'enhanced pat-down' screeners to prosecution. Lastly, public support for the TSA's use of X-ray body scanners drops dramatically when people realize there is a cancer risk."
Security

Submission + - Inside the Duqu worm's source code (techworld.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "Wrapped in the code the Duqu worm uses to infect computers is the message: "Copyright (c) 2003 Showtime Inc. All rights reserved. DexterRegularDexter." An analysis of the worm has also revealed that Duqu, which is similar to Stuxnet and may even have been written by the same developers, may be four years old and that it generally tries to steal information on Wednesdays"

Comment Re:Of course it does (Score 4) 1797

by RatPh!nk (#37817710) Attached to: Ron Paul Wants To End the Federal Student Loan Program
I think this hits part of the nail right on the head:

Nearly every job requires a BS or BA...even if they don't care which subject.

This is just wrong, IMO. IMO college is not trade school (not that there is anything wrong with trade school), but it has been turned into one by this notion that pretty much any job that is not Jiffy Lube or the Quickie Mart requires a college degree. There was some research published recently about gains in knowledge and critical thinking skills, this was the conclusion:

Students majoring in business, education, social work and communications showed the least gains in learning. However, the authors note that their findings don't preclude the possibility that such students "are developing subject-specific or occupationally relevant skills."

In other words, there were learning "subject specific" or occupationally relevant skills", we have a name for a program like this -- trade school.

Students who majored in the traditional liberal arts — including the social sciences, humanities, natural sciences and mathematics — showed significantly greater gains over time than other students in critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing skills.
Government

Ron Paul Suggests Axing 5 U.S. Federal Departments (and Budgets) 2247

Posted by timothy from the sounds-pretty-good-to-me dept.
sciencehabit writes with this selection from Science: "Presidential hopeful Ron Paul's new proposal to slash federal spending would wipe out large chunks of the government's research portfolio. The congressman from Texas and Republican candidate has unveiled a budget plan to reduce the deficit that would eliminate five federal departments: Energy, Commerce, Interior, Education, and Housing and Urban Development. In one fell swoop, such a step would erase, among other programs, the Energy Department's $5-billion Office of Science, the $4.5-billion National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the $750-million National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the $1.1-billion U.S. Geological Survey."
Image

PETA To Launch Pornography Website Screenshot-sm 348

Posted by samzenpus from the one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other dept.
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are planning on launching an adult oriented website to help protect animals through a mix of animal suffering footage and porn. I'm not sure how mixing the two will win hearts, minds, or naughty bits, but Lindsay Rajt, PETA's associate director of campaigns, seems to think it's a good idea. She says, "We're hoping to reach a whole new audience of people, some of whom will be shocked by graphic images that maybe they didn't anticipate seeing when they went to the PETA triple-X site."
Power

13-Year-Old Uses Fibonacci Sequence For Solar Power Breakthrough 410

Posted by Soulskill from the one-one-two-three-five-eureka dept.
An anonymous reader tips news of 7th grader Aidan Dwyer, who used phyllotaxis — the way leaves are arranged on plant stems in nature — as inspiration to arrange an array of solar panels in a way that generates 20-50% more energy than a uniform, flat panel array. Aidan wrote, "I designed and built my own test model, copying the Fibonacci pattern of an oak tree. I studied my results with the compass tool and figured out the branch angles. The pattern was about 137 degrees and the Fibonacci sequence was 2/5. Then I built a model using this pattern from PVC tubing. In place of leaves, I used PV solar panels hooked up in series that produced up to 1/2 volt, so the peak output of the model was 5 volts. The entire design copied the pattern of an oak tree as closely as possible. ... The Fibonacci tree design performed better than the flat-panel model. The tree design made 20% more electricity and collected 2 1/2 more hours of sunlight during the day. But the most interesting results were in December, when the Sun was at its lowest point in the sky. The tree design made 50% more electricity, and the collection time of sunlight was up to 50% longer!"His work earned him a Young Naturalist Award from the American Museum of Natural History and a provisional patent on the design.
Facebook

Facebook Exec: Online Anonymity Must Go Away 553

Posted by Soulskill from the show-your-support-anonymously dept.
Chaonici writes "The EFF has a blog post about what appears to be Facebook's stance on anonymity on the Internet. Speaking last week at a social media conference hosted by Marie Claire magazine, Facebook's Marketing Director, Randi Zuckerburg, is quoted: 'I think anonymity on the Internet has to go away. People behave a lot better when they have their real names down. I think people hide behind anonymity and they feel like they can say whatever they want behind closed doors.' This position appears to apply to the entire Internet, not just Facebook (which already requires that its users post real names instead of pseudonyms). The EFF goes on to point out how this would be a bad choice for civil liberties online."

Comment Re:Climate Catastrophists are funded by everyone e (Score 1) 504

by RatPh!nk (#36626036) Attached to: Climate Skeptic Funded By Oil and Coal Companies

Aside from the obvious gains those who have vested interest in alternative energy have what do those scientists who feel global warming is man made have to gain? What are the motives? The flip side is obvious, the fossil fuel industry stands to lose trillions of dollars if anthropogenic climate change is the real deal. I have always been a pragmatist. The logic goes something like this:

1. Everyone knows that fossil fuels are a finite resource whose peak availability may have just passed, is happening now or will happen reasonably soon (decades not centuries, likely)

2. There is a possibility that fossil fuel use is contributing to potentially catastrophic weather pattern shifts on the only habitable and reachable planet we know of in the universe.

3. Since we know this weaning is going to happen sooner of later, why not start (seriously) now.

There is no easy weaning in some industry. Organic solvents aren't going to be replaced by a commercially available synthetic anytime soon. This is important if you like medicine. Next, there aren't any alternative shipping/flight options available on the horizon for commerce. So we need reserve for commercial entities.

Thoughts?

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