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Government

Submission + - Cisco looking to make things right with West Virginia (networkworld.com)

alphadogg writes: Cisco has offered to "take back" routers it sold to West Virginia if the state finds they are inappropriate for its needs, according to this post on wvgazette.com. http://wvgazette.com/News/201302280075?page=1 The offer is in response to a state auditor's finding http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Joint/PERD/perdrep/BTOP_2_2013.pdf that West Virginia wasted $8 million — and perhaps as much as $15 million — in acquiring 1,164 ISR model 3945 branch routers from Cisco in 2010 for $24 million in federal stimulus funds, or over $20,000 per router. The auditor found that hundreds of sites around the state — libraries, schools and State Police facilities — could have been just as suitably served with lower-end, less expensive routers. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/022513-west-virginia-cisco-router-267067.html?hpg1=bn
Sony

Submission + - Official: Playstation 4 will play used games (eurogamer.net)

An anonymous reader writes: Quenching some rumors 'Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida has told Eurogamer that PlayStation 4 will not block the use of second-hand games, contrary to various reports, speculation and even a Sony patent unearthed last month.'
Businesses

Submission + - Kim Dotcom Plans White Label Version of Mega, Universities Get It For Free

An anonymous reader writes: Kim Dotcom made a very interesting announcement on Twitter this morning: Mega will soon offer white label versions of its service. Furthermore, he told TNW that his company “will provide this service for free” to universities. Dotcom told us he couldn’t offer too much detail, but he did say that he hasn’t partnered with any schools just yet. Mega has been approached “by one famous US university” recently, however, and the company concluded it “should offer them a tailored solution,” according to Dotcom. Yet this appears to strictly be a business decision. “We want to cooperate with universities all over the world,” Dotcom told TNW. “Their students are our potential future customers.”
Software

Submission + - Why My Team Went with DynamoDB Over MongoDB (slashdot.org)

Nerval's Lobster writes: "Software developer Jeff Cogswell, who matched up Java and C# and peeked under the hood of Facebook's Graph Search, is back with a new tale: why his team decided to go with Amazon's DynamoDB over MongoDB when it came to building a highly customized content system, even though his team specialized in MongoDB. While DynamoDB did offer certain advantages, it also came with some significant headaches, including issues with embedded data structures and Amazon's sometimes-confusing billing structure. He offers a walkthrough of his team's tips and tricks, with some helpful advice on avoiding pitfalls for anyone interested in considering DynamoDB. "Although I’m not thrilled about the additional work we had to do (at times it felt like going back two decades in technology by writing indexes ourselves)," he writes, "we did end up with some nice reusable code to help us with the serialization and indexes and such, which will make future projects easier."
 "

PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - Sony Announces Playstation 4 (bbc.co.uk)

_0x783czar writes: "Sony has today announced their next generation console, the Playstation 4. It is slated to have an x86 based AMD chipset, which is why Sony is describing the new console as a "Super Charged PC". They also hope that the x86 architecture will make it easier for developers to create games, since they will be able to write the code for the same architecture as a PC. No pictures have yet been released to show what this new console will look like, aside from the the controller: which will have a touch-pad and & camera tracked light. This new console will also focus heavily on social interaction and aims to provide an easy way to pause and share video of your last few minutes of gameplay. In addition to this, it is reported to also have the ability to let your friends remotely control your character in game so as to help you get through a difficult spot; or even just to watch as spectators. Sony hopes to have this new console compete with the Wii U and the upcoming XBox 720 (name pending), but many people are still skeptical since no actual pictures of the console have been released. "Pics or it didn't happen.""
Piracy

Submission + - RIAA: Google Failing to Demote Pirate Websites (slashdot.org)

Nerval's Lobster writes: "The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) claims that Google has failed in its attempt to lower the search-results rankings of so-called “pirate” Websites. “We have found no evidence that Google’s policy has had a demonstrable impact on demoting sites with large amounts of piracy,” read the report’s summary (PDF). “These sites consistently appear at the top of Google’s search results for popular songs or artists.” Last August, Google indicated that it would start lowering the search-result rankings of Websites with high numbers of “valid” copyright removal notices. “This ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily—whether it’s a song previewed on NPR’s music website, a TV show on Hulu or new music streamed on Spotify,” Amit Singhal, Google’s senior vice president of Engineering, wrote in a corporate blog posting at the time. Google, which receives millions of copyright removal notices every month, also offers a counter-notice tool for those who believe their Websites have been unfairly targeted for copyright violations."
Cloud

Submission + - Microsoft Azure overtakes Amazon's cloud in performance test (networkworld.com)

alphadogg writes: Microsoft Azure's cloud outperformed Amazon Web Services in a series of rigorous tests conducted by Nasuni, a storage vendor that annually benchmarks cloud service providers (CSPs). Nasuni uses public cloud resources in its enterprise storage offering, so each year the company conducts a series of rigorous tests on the top CSPs' clouds in an effort to see which companies offer the best performing, most reliable infrastructure. Last year, Amazon Web Services' cloud came out on top, but this year Microsoft Azure outperformed AWS in performance and reliability measures. AWS is still better at handling extra-large storage volumes, while Nasuni found that the two OpenStack powered clouds it tested — from HP and Rackspace — were lacking, particularly at larger scales.

Comment Re:Cool (Score 1) 783

What I meant was that I have a strong faith in my religion, but I also love science. There is a contradiction between the two in some regards. But I don't lose much sleep over it because I accept two things: the fact that neither Science nor my own understanding of my Religion or God's power are infallible. I don't claim to have an answer for every way they mesh, but I am convinced that Science and Religion are not opposed if we truly understand them completely—which we do not.
But most importantly I believe that in the realm of education we have to teach Science first. That's what I was taught, when as a young man I watched Carl Segan's "The Cosmos" and watched "Bill Nye the Science Guy" devotedly. On a personal level, I'd like there to be some mention of Intelligent Design, but even among Creationists there is no agreement on what "Intelligent Design" really means, so in the end if you go down that road there is now way to satisfy everyone.

Comment Cool (Score 4, Interesting) 783

I'm a creationist, and I have no problem with this. School systems' curriculum has to be governed by science first. I likely don't have a problem with this, because I don't claim to know how God created everything. From a faith-based point of view, I have some problems with Evolution, but I don't see how that should govern the curriculum in schools. I see Science as our way of understanding God's power, we may not understand everything yet, but if we don't endeavor to learn everything we can through Science, we will only block our own growth.

Comment Not surprised (Score 1) 442

I'm not exactly shocked by this, with more power comes more power consumption. Although I can see how this can be a downside when one is evaluating the usefulness of the device for their purposes. I'm not a fan of Microsoft Products, but I can see why it would be tough to overcome this (at least in the first iteration).
Mars

Submission + - High Definition video of Curiosity's landing on Mars (wired.com) 2

_0x783czar writes: "NASA has released an Hi-Def video of Curiosity's landing. This video was captured in low res, and then extrapolated and re-rendered by Bard Canning, to produce the most stunning imagery ever captured on an alien world. It took Canning over a month to complete the process. He used motion tracking to add sound effects which in turn give you the sensation of the ride of your life."

Comment Rising Tuition Costs must be a real problem... (Score 1) 289

Now MY question is why are we not arresting these criminal students at the University of Michigan who are forging money! Why is law enforcement not cracking down on this ring of spoiled college brats and their "Free-With-Purchase-Of-Laptop-For-College" ink-jets! Does the treasury think that sitting around and musing over possible longterm solutions is a viable solution to protect the US economy from these Econ Class Flunkies?! We need to send in Treasury agents to bust down the door to their dorms and arrest them! Heck, lets even send in the DEA, I'm sure forgery is only the tip of this tender iceberg! They're probably rollin' doobies with faux Benjamins whilst waiting for their buddies to get more color ink from the bookstore! This is an outrage! (also, I think the poster missed a comma)

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