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Submission + - Behind the Microsoft write-off of Nokia (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by UnknowingFool
UnknowingFool writes: Previously Microsoft had announced that they write-off the Nokia purchase for $7.6B in the last quarter. In doing so Microsoft would create only the third unprofitable quarter in the company's history. Released on July 31, new financial documents detail some of the reasoning and financials behind this decision. At the core of the problem was that the Phone Hardware business was only worth $116M after adjusting for costs and market factors. One of those factors was poor sales of Nokia handhelds in 2015. Financially it made more sense to write it all off.

the carrying value of Phone Hardware goodwill exceeded its estimated fair value. Accordingly, we recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $5.1 billion, reducing Phone Hardware’s goodwill from $5.4 billion to $116 million

Submission + - Chattanooga ISP To Move From 1 Gigabit to 10 Gigabit Internet Speeds

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Chattanooga’s own public utility, Electric Power Board has said it plans to upgrade some of their existing 1 Gigabit service lines with 10 Gigabit service over the next few years and will make it the standard go-forward method for new infrastructure. Back in 2007, the city council moved forward with their $200 million project to make gigabit service available to every home in Chattanooga. They began in 2010 making the service available to consumers and now 5 years later are looking to move into 10Gbp/sec space making it only the second city in the United States to offer such speeds (Minneapolis being the other).

Submission + - Torvalds 2.0: Patricia Torvalds on computing, college, feminism, and increasing (opensource.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Patricia Torvalds isn't the Torvalds name that pops up in Linux and open source circles. Yet.

At 18, Patricia is a feminist with a growing list of tech achievements, open source industry experience, and her sights set on diving into her freshman year of college at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering. She works for Puppet Labs in Portland, Oregon, as an intern, but soon she'll head to Durham, North Carolina, to start the fall semester of college.

In this exclusive interview, Patricia explains what got her interested in computer science and engineering (spoiler alert: it wasn't her father), what her high school did "right" with teaching tech, the important role feminism plays in her life, and her thoughts on the lack of diversity in technology.

Submission + - NTT, Japan's largest fixed telecom provider, begins phasing out ADSL

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), the third largest telecoms provider in the world, is beginning to phase out ADSL for broadband internet access. NTT is no longer accepting new registrations, and no longer manufacturing the equipment required. Instead they recommend users opt for their FLET'S HIKARI fibre optic service. Their "Giga Mansion Smart Type" services offers 1Gb/sec for around $40/month.

Submission + - Nokia's HERE maps sold for $3 billion to Audi, BMW and Mercedes

Submitted by vivaoporto
vivaoporto writes: Nokia announced an agreement to sell its HERE digital mapping and location services business to a consortium of leading automotive companies, comprising AUDI AG, BMW Group and Daimler AG (Mercedes brand owner).

The transaction values HERE at an enterprise value of EUR 2.8 billion with a normalized level of working capital and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Upon closing, Nokia estimates that it will receive net proceeds of slightly above EUR 2.5 billion, as the purchaser would be compensated for certain defined liabilities of HERE currently expected to be slightly below EUR 300 million as part of the transaction. Nokia expects to book a gain on the sale and a related release of cumulative foreign exchange translation differences totaling approximately EUR 1 billion as a result of the transaction.

Once the mapping unit is sold, Nokia will consist of two businesses: Nokia Networks and Nokia Technologies. The first will continue to provide broadband services and infrastructure while the second will work on “advanced technology development and licensing.”

Feed Google News Sci Tech: Hitchhiking robot's cross-country trip in US ends in Philly - Grand Island Independent (google.com)

From feed by feedfeeder

Grand Island Independent
Hitchhiking robot's cross-country trip in US ends in Philly
Grand Island Independent
FILE- In this July 17, 2015, file photo, a car drives by HitchBOT, a hitchhiking robot in Marblehead, Mass. The Canadian researchers who created hitchBOT as a social experiment say someone in Philadelphia damaged the robot beyond repair on Saturday,...
Vandals end hitchhiking robot hitchBOT's US cross-country trekDispatch Times
The Last Journey of hitchBOT: The Photos You Need to SeeHeavy.com
Hitchhiking Robot Destroyed After Just 2 Weeks Travelling in USYibada (English Edition)

all 94 news articles

Submission + - Unicode consortium looks at symbols for allergies

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: A new preliminary proposal submitted to the Unicode Consortium suggests that specific emoji for food allergies should be added to the standard. The proposal (PDF), submitted by a Google engineer, is under discussion and may not be added to the standard at all but offers a peek into some useful new emoji. It suggests the addition of peanuts, soybeans, buckwheat, sesame seeds, kiwi fruit, celery, lupin beans, mustard, tree nuts, eggs, milk products and gluten to help those with allergies express them in shorthand.

Submission + - New telemetry suggests shot-down drone was higher than alleged

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: The pilot of the drone shot down Sunday evening over a Kentucky property has now come forward with video seemingly showing that the drone wasn't nearly as close as the property owner made it out to be. The data also shows that it was well over 200 feet above the ground before the fatal shots fired. The shooter, meanwhile, continues to maintain that the drone flew 20 feet over a neighbour's house before ascending to "60 to 80 [feet] above me."

Submission + - can a blind programmer use modelling projects visual studio (freedomscientific.com)

Submitted by StarTrekCafe
StarTrekCafe writes: hi. can blind people use accessible modelling tools for visual studio? probably not! as screen readers cannot read text inside images or graphics or diagrams. so i need to do a modelling project for my programming course via http://www.upskilled.edu.au./ I use a screen reader Jaws For Windows from http://www.freedomscientific.c... Now, what are my options. Did try plant uml, but that is java based. So any ideas, need to do state, use, case, class and sequence diagrams from a couple of projects i have done already. A C# and a SQL Database project. Will ryno 3d do the job with accessibility? So what accessible tools, can i use? need to convey this information to my lectuer. Will it read the content in visual studio 2013 or 2015?

Submission + - Non-invasive spinal cord stimulation gets paralyzed legs moving again (gizmag.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Five men with complete motor paralysis have regained the ability to move their legs voluntarily and produce step-like movements after being treated with a non-invasive form of spinal cord stimulation. The new treatment builds on prior work to generate voluntary movements in paralyzed people through electrical stimulation â" in particular, two studies (one completed in 2011, the other in 2014) that involved surgically implanting an electrode array on the spinal cord. This time, however, the researchers found success without performing any invasive surgery.

The new treatment uses a technique called transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, which involves strategically placing electrodes on the skin of the lower back. While receiving stimulation, the men's legs were supported by braces that hung from the ceiling. At first their legs only moved involuntarily, if at all. But they soon found they could voluntarily extend the distance their legs moved during stimulation. They doubled their range of voluntary motion after four treatment sessions.

Submission + - FireChat Weaves Smartphones Into an Alternative Internet (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: What do people in Manila watching the Pope give Mass, Russian and Hong Kong protesters, and U.S. festivalgoers have in common? They have all turned to FireChat, an app that creates hyperlocal chat rooms that work even when cell networks are down by connecting phones within Wi-Fi range of one another (see "The Latest Chat App for the iPhone Needs No Internet Connection").

An upgrade to FireChat released today could make the app much more useful and powerful. It makes it possible to communicate with other FireChat users beyond the roughly 70 meters that your device can reach with Wi-Fi. Private and public messages can now travel longer distances by hopping between FireChat users until they get to the intended recipient-an approach known as mesh networking. Messages are encrypted as they travel through intermediate devices.

Submission + - ARIN IPv4 addresses run out tomorrow

Submitted by jcomeau_ictx
jcomeau_ictx writes: not really. but the countdown at tunnelbroker.net should go to zero sometime tomorrow around noon, considering it's at 45,107 as I write this, it's counting down about one address every two seconds, and there are 86,400 seconds per day. just happened to notice it today. might be worth a little celebration at every NOC and IT enterprise tomorrow. cheers!

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Can you permanently disable Windows 10 privacy invading features?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I really want to upgrade to Windows 10, but have begun seeing stories come out about the new Terms and how they affect your privacy. It looks like the default Windows 10 system puts copies of your data out on the "cloud", gives your passwords out, and targets advertising to you. The main reason I am looking to upgrade is that Bitlocker is not available on Windows 7 Pro, but is on Windows 10 Pro, and Microsoft no longer offers Anytime Upgrades to Windows 7 Ultimate. However, I don't want to give away my privacy for security. The other option is to wait until October to see what the Windows 10 Enterprise version offers, but it may not be available through retail. Are the privacy minded Slashdot readers not going with Windows 10?

For reference, I am referring to these articles:
http://www.theguardian.com/tec...
http://betanews.com/2015/07/31...

Submission + - Answering Elon Musk on the dangers of Artificial Intelligence (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: Stanford's Edward Moore Geist takes apart the recent panic over superintelligent machines in a terrific, thorough piece of analysis: 'Superintelligence is propounding a solution that will not work to a problem that probably does not exist, but Bostrom and Musk are right that now is the time to take the ethical and policy implications of artificial intelligence seriously. The extraordinary claim that machines can become so intelligent as to gain demonic powers requires extraordinary evidence, particularly since artificial intelligence (AI) researchers have struggled to create machines that show much evidence of intelligence at all.'

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