jfruhlinger - Slashdot User

Submission + - Facebook Fighting Its Property Tax Bill (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger

on Monday January 23, 2012 @06:36PM

jfruhlinger writes: "Facebook recently opened a data center in rural Crook County, Oregon, and after being told to assess the center's value in terms of the "real and personal, tangible or intangible," the company was hit with a $390,000 property tax bill. Though local authorities are now backing off, Facebook is still fighting for a clarification of what exactly will be taxed. At heart is a question that should trouble anyone who runs a data center: is the value of the data on your servers, or of your brand itself, something that can or should be taxed?"

Submission + - Rare 1963 Jim Henson Film Extolls Robots (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger

on Monday January 23, 2012 @05:59PM

jfruhlinger writes: "In 1963, when Jim Henson was 27, he helped make a short film for AT&T about the virtues of robots. The mechanical proto-muppet in the film begins by extolling its own soullessness and ... we'll, you'll see how it goes from there."

Submission + - We Want Thin Gadgets -- And Thick Cases. Why? (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger

on Monday January 23, 2012 @11:52AM

jfruhlinger writes: "If there's one word that gadget-makers can't get into their marketing material enough, it's "thin." Based on their advertising, you'd think consumers would want their gadgetry to be as skinny as possible. But then there's also the fact that cases that make gadgets easier to hold — and, yes, thicker — are a huge money-making industry. What's the dynamic?"

Submission + - Sega Launches Urinal-Based Video Game In Japan (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger

on Thursday January 19, 2012 @03:30PM

jfruhlinger writes: "You might call this story about a video game that involves aiming your urine an "only in Japan story," but there's no reason to think that you couldn't see this in men's rooms across America soon!"

Submission + - Facebook's Timeline Apps Are Beacon 2.0 (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger

on Thursday January 19, 2012 @02:35PM

jfruhlinger writes: "Remember Beacon, the Facebook advertising initiative that went down in a hail of privacy protests in late 2009? Well, as privacy blogger Dan Tynan points out, the array of Facebook Timeline apps announced today look an awful lot like Beacon 2.0. There have been some genuine privacy improvements over the original — and there's probably also been a definite shift in attitudes about sharing in the last 2+ years."

Submission + - Linux Thrives On The Cloud And In The Data Center (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger

on Thursday January 19, 2012 @11:52AM

jfruhlinger writes: "We've all more or less given up on this year being the "year of the Linux desktop," but that shouldn't obscure the fact that Linux is thriving in ways few could have predicted in the early '00s. Two big arenas where Linux is king: the cloud servers bearing more and more of the industry's computing load, and doing the heavy lifting for so-called "big data" analytical installations."

Submission + - Could Non-Volatile MRAM Replace DRAM? (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger

on Wednesday January 18, 2012 @06:24PM

jfruhlinger writes: "When you talk about how much RAM your computer has, you're talking about DRAM — dynamic memory that needs to be charged to maintain the data it stores. For years, researchers have been working on MRAM, which stores data magnetically and doesn't require constant charging. It's too expensive now for anything but very specialized uses, but in the not-so-distant future that could change."

Submission + - Google Introduces, Then Yanks QR-Code Security (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger

on Tuesday January 17, 2012 @12:05PM

jfruhlinger writes: "If typing your Google account password into a public computer makes you nervous, then Google had the answer to you: a login process that involved a QR code processed by your more secure Android phone. Note that I said 'had': the unannounced feature was pulled almost as soon as it went up. Hopefully it'll be back soon?"

Submission + - SOPA Wouldn't Stop The Pirate Bay (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger

on Friday January 13, 2012 @03:23PM

jfruhlinger writes: "The main justification of the much-hated proposed SOPA legislation is that it would shut down non-U.S. websites that are hosting copyright-infringing content. But here's an oddity: The Pirate Bay, the most famous copyright-infringing non-U.S. website in the world, has a .org address, and, under the definitions of the proposed law, wouldn't qualify as a foreign site. SOPA provisions wouldn't apply to it."

Submission + - Microsoft Getting Patent Fees From ChromeOS Too (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger

on Thursday January 12, 2012 @05:24PM

jfruhlinger writes: "It's well known that Microsoft has been making plenty of money from Android by threatening vendors with patent suits, and that even Google won't fight back. Now it appears that Redmond is spreading its net further, convincing LG to pay patent protection money on ChromeOS sales."

Submission + - Pro-SOPA Comcast Uses SOPA-Incompatible DNSSEC (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger

on Wednesday January 11, 2012 @05:03PM

jfruhlinger writes: "Since 2009, Comcast subscribers who have accidentally typed a non-existant URL into their web browser have not gotten a 404 error but rather been redirected to a "helpful" page with suggestions on the right URL, along with ads. That page has now vanished as the ISP has implemented DNSSEC, a set of security standards that, among other things, prevents the malicious redirection of DNS requests. But if SOPA passes, ISPs will be forced to redirect requests for blacklisted sites, which violates DNSSEC. And, oh yes, Comcast is an enthusiastic SOPA supporter."

Submission + - A Cheat Sheet To CES' Interesting Mobile News (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger

on Wednesday January 11, 2012 @01:12PM

jfruhlinger writes: "Every year at CES, technophiles are overwhelmed by a wide array of shiny gadgets, most of which are oversold and end up flopping. Kevin Purdy cuts through the hype and presents the few areas of genuine interest for mobile tech at CES 2012, including Intel's Android phones and stirrings of interest in Windows Mobile."

Submission + - US Ejects Diplomat For Planning Cyberattacks (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger

on Tuesday January 10, 2012 @10:22PM

jfruhlinger writes: "A Venezuelan consul in Miami has been ejected from the United States, and the reasons why are serious: she's been accused of participating in an Iranian plot to launch cyberattacks on U.S. nuclear plants. Diplomats have immunity from prosecution, which is probably the only reason she isn't in jail."

Submission + - Qualcomm Wants A Piece Of The PC Market (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger

on Tuesday January 10, 2012 @06:18PM

jfruhlinger writes: "Much of Intel's story of the past few years has involved its so far fruitless attempts to break into the smartphone and tablet market. But as it keeps trying, it may find competition on its home turf: Qualcomm, which makes many of the ARM-based chips in those smartphones and tablets, wants to make PCs, too. The advent of Windows 8 for ARM and Android will make this possible."

Submission + - Data Hogs: The Monsters Carriers Created (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger

on Monday January 09, 2012 @05:03PM

jfruhlinger writes: "A recent study claimed that the top 1 percent of mobile data users eat up 25 percent of the available bandwidth. But assuming it's true, who's at fault? Stats show that data usage has increased radically with each new model of the iPhone, and similar phenomenon are in place for Android phones — all of which are gleefully sold to the public by the same people who complain about 'data hogs.' Isn't this the equivalent of a car dealer that heavily promotes Cadillacs, then complains about poor fuel efficiency, then charges a ton for extra gasoline?"

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