Comment Re:Want to find your car in a parking lot? (Score 1) 301
You forgot step 0.
0. Own a car that's at least 20 years old and doesn't have a power antenna that retracts automatically when the car is turned off.....
Google Nexus Rumored To Cost $530 Or $180 w/Plan 284
wkurzius writes "The new Google phone, the Nexus One, is rumored to cost $530 unlocked and will work on any GSM network. A subsidized version is also available for $180 and will get you a T-Mobile Even More Individual 500 Plan for 2-years with a $350 termination fee. Access to the phone is supposed to be invite only at first, with January 5th being the supposed release date."
Secrets of Schizophrenia and Depression "Unlocked" 334
Oracle Goddess writes "According to the US National Institute for Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, scientists have discovered a remarkable similarity between the genetic faults behind both schizophrenia and manic depression in a breakthrough that is expected to open the way to new treatments for two of the most common mental illnesses, affecting millions of people. Previously schizophrenia and depression were assumed to be two separate conditions, but the new research shows for the first time that both have a common genetic basis that leads people to develop one or the other of the two illnesses."
SolarNetOne Wants Stable Internet Connections For Developing Nations 73
There are many initiatives to bring tech to developing areas of the globe; things like OLPC, Geekcorps, and UN programs. One new approach from SolarNetOne strives to allow users in those developing areas to have access to an internet connection without having to depend on unreliable infrastructure. "Each SolarNetOne kit is a self-powered communications network. Energy is produced from a solar array sized to each locale's latitude and predominant weather conditions. The generated power is stored in a substantial battery array, and circuit breakers and electronics protect the gear from overloads and other perturbations. A basic kit includes five 'seats,' implemented as thin clients connected through a LAN to a central server. The networking gear also includes a long-range, omnidirectional WiFi access point, and a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) device. Each kit also includes all the cables and wires required to assemble the system, so few additional materials are required for an installation."
Microsoft Shoots Own Foot In Iceland 476
David Gerard writes "The Microsoft Certified Partner model is: an MCP buys contracts from Microsoft and sells them to businesses as a three-year timed contract, payable in annual installments. Iceland's economy has collapsed, so 1500 businesses have gone bankrupt and aren't paying the fees any more. But Microsoft has told the MCPs: 'Our deal was with you, not them. Pay up.' The MCPs that don't go bankrupt in turn are moving headlong to Free Software, taking most of the country with them. (Warning: link contains strong language and vivid imagery.)"
Tech Publisher O'Reilly Slashes Jobs 207
An anonymous reader writes "According to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, geeky tech publisher O'Reilly Media has slashed 14% of its workforce, or 31 people. Founder and tech pundit Tim O'Reilly comments on the layoffs by exhorting people to 'get more with less.' According to the article, 'Just this week... both tech giant Google and book retailer Barnes & Noble announced their first layoffs ever. Other publishing houses, including HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Random House, and Simon & Schuster have frozen salaries or cut jobs, or both.'"
The Wackiest Technology Tales of 2008 97
coondoggie writes "Despite the daily drumbeat of new and improved hardware or software, the tech industry isn't all bits and bytes. Some interesting things happen along the way too. Like floating data centers, space geekonauts, shape shifting robots and weird bedfellows (like Microsoft and Jerry Seinfeld). What we include here is an example of what we thought were the best,
slightly off-center stories of 2008."
Submission + - Rare Soviet Retro-Future Space Art (darkroastedblend.com)
abramsv writes: "A collection of the most inspiring & hard-to-find retro-futuristic graphics from rather unlikely sources: Soviet & Eastern Bloc "popular tech & science" magazines, German, Italian, British fantastic illustrations and promotional literature — all from the Golden Age of Retro-Future (from 1930s to 1970s). Link"
Submission + - Top Australian ISP removes OpenOffice.org 2
An anonymous reader writes: Australia's biggest ISP Bigpond, part of the largest telco Telstra, has removed all OpenOffice.org downloads from their free downloads mirror Bigpond Files Library. The Library main page indicates that the reason for this was to promote their new Java-based hosted office suite Bigpond Office, adding that "BigPond has launched a number of new applications that provide similar functionality to some existing application files in the file library and therefore those files have been removed".
With the OO.o files no longer available as free downloads, Bigpond OO.o users will be forced to download from other locations and have those downloads count against their quota. Bigpond's quotas are among the most severe in the world according to a recent OECD report (30 KB XLS) , and with typical OO.o downloads amounting to over half the quota of Bigpond's least expensive (and most popular) plan, download costs of about AUS$15 for OO.O are possible.
Comment Elder Things? (Score 2, Funny) 173
Yes but have they found any evidence of Elder Things yet? Or at the very least some Shoggoths?
