Comment Re:What's the story here? (Score 1) 207
The story is Apple. Something to do with Apple. Something to do with how this decision by Apple is simply amazing and could not have been arrived at by any other company under any circumstance.
Comment Re:Fahrenheit? WTHolyF? (Score 2, Insightful) 210
Yes, apparently it is too much to ask that people be correct these days.
The summary clearly states that 512GB of memory is 1000 times more than 512MB of memory, which is patently false. If you're making comparisons, you don't make absolute statements like this. You use qualifying words like "about 1000 times" or "approximately 1000 times" to let the reader know you do not mean to be precise.
Comment Re:1024-fold (Score 1, Informative) 210
The OP is correct. Memory is always expressed in GiB. There is no such thing as Base-10 memory.
Comment Fahrenheit? WTHolyF? (Score 1, Troll) 210
Why the hell are we talking about the Fahrenheit scale. And, while we're at it, memory of all kinds is always expressed in GiB, so a 512GB card is 1024 times as large as a 512MB card, not 1000 times.
It looks like a standard -25 to 85C extended commercial rating.
Comment Re:Encryption (Score 2) 104
Well, it didn't help that the guy who filed that petition didn't bother to read the HIPAA laws, nor understand that HIPAA laws do not apply to ham radio operators. He was seeking a solution to a made-up problem.
Comment Re:What about other devices? (Score 1) 421
Android is not free. Googls pays Microsoft a small fortune in patent licensing to be able to sell Android.
Comment Re:The power of bad reporting (Score 1) 129
Lighten up, Francis. This is Slashdot. Nobody expects good journalism or even semi-accurate plagiarism here.
Comment This is not new (Score 1) 129
Crystal light has been around for a very long time.
Comment Re:In other words....Don't look like a drug traffi (Score 1) 462
So, you believe it is okay for the government to confiscate your property, without being able to articulate a _reasonable_ suspicion of criminal activity, without charging you with a crime, and without convicting you of a crime?
Comment Story is bogus (Score 0) 171
I checked Netcraft, and they did NOT confirm it...
Comment Link to App (Score 1) 77
Since neither the submitter nor the editors couldn't be bothered to provide a link to the app in the play store (let's face it, that would be too useful), here it is:
Comment Wrong thinking (Score 1) 499
"Colleagues who decry Barr's fate worry that the incident could make other scientists think twice about coming to work for NSF"
No, her fate will make other scientists think twice about getting involved with terrorist organizations and then lying about it on their background check applications.
Cuba Calculates Cost of 54yr US Embargo At $1.1 Trillion 540
First time accepted submitter ltorvalds11 writes Cuba says its economy is suffering a "systematic worsening" due to a US embargo, the consequences of which Havana places at $1.1 trillion since Washington imposed the sanctions in 1960, taking into account the depreciation of the dollar against gold. "There is not, and there has not been in the world, such a terrorizing and vile violation of human rights of an entire people than the blockade that the US government has been leading against Cuba for 55 years," Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno told reporters. He also blamed the embargo for the difficulties in accessing internet on the island, saying that the United States creates an obstacle for companies providing broadband services in Cuba. Additionally, he said that the area is one of the "most sensitive" to the embargo, with economic losses estimated at $34.2 million. It is also the sector that has fallen "victim of all kinds of attacks" by the US, as violations of the Cuban radio or electronic space "promote destabilization" of Cuban society, the report notes. The damage to Cuban foreign trade between April 2013 and June 2014 amounted to $3.9 billion, the report said. Without the embargo, Cuba could have earned $205.8 million selling products such as rum and cigars to US consumers. Barack Obama last week signed the one-year extension of the embargo on Cuba, based on the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, created to restrict trade with countries hostile to the U.S..
Comment Upstate South Carolina and the CATBUS (Score 1) 491
Our area just picked up a few Proterra electric buses for use in the Catbus system, which serves Clemson University and the surrounding areas. There were some huge federal grants involved, and they have been riddled with problems, but have finally started running and carrying passengers. We're mostly a rural area and the bus system is free for all to use - paid for by Clemson University student fees and some taxpayer money from surrounding municipalities (Cities of Clemson, Seneca, Pendleton, and Central, afaik).
The buses are neat. They use overhead inductive chargers that are located at various places around town. I haven't ridden one yet (I prefer to get around by bicycle), but I hear they're pretty nice.
I am sure the impact on air quality is almost unmeasurable in our vast expanse of rural countryside, but in cities the impact could be huge.
UN Study Shows Record-High Increases For Atmospheric CO2 In 2013 427
Figures released Tuesday by a United Nations advisory body reveal that 2013 saw new recorded highs for both carbon dioxide and methane, as well as the largest year-over-year rise in carbon dioxide since 1984, reflecting continuing worldwide emissions from human sources but also the possibility that natural sinks (oceans and vegetation) are near their capacity for absorbing the excess. From the Washington Post's account:
The latest figures from the World Meteorological Organization’s monitoring network are considered particularly significant because they reflect not only the amount of carbon pumped into the air by humans, but also the complex interaction between man-made gases and the natural world. Historically, about half of the pollution from human sources has been absorbed by the oceans and by terrestrial plants, preventing temperatures from rising as quickly as they otherwise would, scientists say.
“If the oceans and the biosphere cannot absorb as much carbon, the effect on the atmosphere could be much worse,” said Oksana Tarasova, a scientist and chief of the WMO’s Global Atmospheric Watch program, which collects data from 125 monitoring stations worldwide. The monitoring network is regarded as the most reliable window on the health of Earth’s atmosphere, drawing on air samples collected near the poles, over the oceans, and in other locations far from cities and other major sources of pollution.
The new figures for carbon dioxide were particularly surprising, showing the biggest year-over-year increase since detailed records were first compiled in the 1980s, Tarasova said in an interview. The jump of nearly three parts per million over 2012 levels was twice as large as the average increase in carbon levels in recent decades, she said.
