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Submission + - Connecting The Next 1.5 Billion People by 2020 On Mobile Internet Won't Be Easy

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: While the number of Internet users in the wealthy world will rise slowly, in developing countries, the number will double from 1.5 billion to 3 billion connected users by 2020.

This is an opportunity companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google are eager to take, some with controversial marketing tactics, like giving "free rides" to users that can't afford data plans.

While bringing Internet to half the world's population will improve their quality of life we need new business models, such as cheap smartphones, decent infrastructure, and free WiFi for everyone.

Submission + - Lowe's Trials Robot Sales Assistants (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: In the near future, you might be surprised to visit to the giant hardware store in your town and find yourself greeted by a chatty robot rather than a human sales assistant. A harbinger of this age of robotic shopping is being trialled with two Oshbot robot sales assistants at an Orchard Supply Hardware store in San Jose, California. Built by Lowe’s Innovation Labs and Silicon Valley technology company Fellow Robots using "science fiction prototyping," the OSHbots are designed to not only identify and locate merchandise, but to speak to customers in their own languages.

Submission + - Marijuana Legalized in Oregon, Alaska and Washington D.C.

Submitted by Robotron23
Robotron23 writes: Coinciding with the midterm elections yesterday were state ballots proposing the legalization of cannabis. All three territories where full legalization was tabled approved the measure, joining Washington state and Colorado in giving cannabis the nod. The narrowest vote was that of Alaska at a roughly 52 to 48 percent margin. Washington D.C. meanwhile saw the vote strongly tipped in favor at about 69% to 31% opposed. Buoyed by the news, advocates of legal cannabis are already contemplating the next round of state ballots in 2016.

Submission + - Brazil Is Keeping Its Promise to Avoid the U.S. Internet - US to lose 35 Billion (gizmodo.com) 1

Submitted by bricko
bricko writes: Brazil Is Keeping Its Promise to Avoid the U.S. Internet

http://gizmodo.com/brazils-kee...

Brazil was not bluffing last year, when it said that it wanted to disconnect from the United States-controlled internet due to the NSA's obscenely invasive surveillance tactics. The country is about to stretch a cable from the northern city of Fortaleza all the way to Portugal, and they've vowed not to use a single U.S. vendor to do it.

Brazil made a bunch of bold promises, ranging in severity from forcing companies like Facebook and Google to move their servers inside Brazilian borders, to building a new all-Brazilian email system—which they've already done. But the first actionable opportunity the country was presented with is this transatlantic cable, which had been in the works since 2012 but is only just now seeing construction begin. And with news that the cable plan will not include American vendors, it looks like Brazil is serious; it's investing $185 million on the cable project alone. And not a penny of that sum will go to an American company.

The implications of Brazil distancing itself from the US internet are huge. It's not necessarily a big deal politically, but the economic consequences could be tremendously destructive. Brazil has the seventh largest economy in the world, and it continues to grow. So when Brazil finally does divorce Uncle Sam—assuming things continue at this rate—a huge number of contracts between American companies and Brazil will simply disappear.

On the whole, researchers estimate that the United States could lose about $35 billion due to security fears. That's a lot of money.

Submission + - Denmark Plans to be Coal-Free in 10 Years

Submitted by merbs
merbs writes: Earlier this year, Denmark's leadership announced that the nation would run entirely on renewable power by 2050. Wind, solar, and biomass would be ramped up while coal and gas are phased out. Now Denmark has gone even further, and plans to end coal by 2025.

Submission + - Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Warg faces Danish jail time.

Submitted by Hammeh
Hammeh writes: BBC news reports that Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Warg has been found guilty of hacking into computers and illegally downloading files in Denmark. Found guilty of breaching security to access computers owned by technology giant CSC to steal police and social security files, Mr Warg faces a sentence of up to six years behind bars. Mr Warg argued that although the computer used to commit the offence was owned by him, the hacks were carried out by another individual who he declined to name.

Submission + - First Detailed Data Analysis Shows Exactly How Comcast Jammed Netflix

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: John Oliver calls it "cable company fuckery" and we've all suspected it happens. Now on Steven Levy's new Backchannel publication on Medium, Susan Crawford delivers decisive proof, expertly dissecting the Comcast-Netflix network congestion controversy. Her source material is a detailed traffic measurement report (.pdf) released this week by Google-backed M-Lab — the first of its kind — showing severe degradation of service at interconnection points between Comcast, Verizon and other monopoly "eyeball networks" and "transit networks" such as Cogent, which was contracted by Netflix to deliver its bits. The report shows that interconnection points give monopoly ISPs all the leverage they need to discriminate against companies like Netflix, which compete with them in video services, simply by refusing to relieve network congestion caused by external traffic requested by their very own ISP customers. And the effects victimize not only companies targeted but ALL incoming traffic from the affected transit network. The report proves the problem is not technical, but rather a result of business decisions. This is not technically a Net neutrality problem, but it creates the very same headaches for consumers, and unfair business advantages for ISPs. In an accompanying article, Crawford makes a compelling case for FCC intervention.

Feed Techdirt: FTC Fines Online Dating Site For Using 'Fake, Computer-Generated Profiles' To Lu (google.com)

From feed by feedfeeder
In the past, we've written about lawsuits involving dating site Match.com and "dating site for married people" Ashley Madison over concerns about fake profiles being set up on the site to lure in paying users. Now it appears the FTC is stepping in on such things, and it's reached a settlement (pdf) with one company, JDI Dating, which runs a bunch of dating sites, for tricking lots of people into buying premium plans based on fake profiles sending messages to "free" users.

According to a complaint filed by the FTC, JDI Dating and William Mark Thomas operate a worldwide dating service via 18 websites, including cupidswand.com, flirtcrowd.com and findmelove.com. The defendants offered a free plan that allowed users to set up a profile with personal information and photos. As soon as a new user set up a free profile, he or she began to receive messages that appeared to be from other members living nearby, expressing romantic interest or a desire to meet. However, users were unable to respond to these messages without upgrading to a paid membership. Membership plans cost from $10 to $30 per month, with subscriptions generally ranging from one to 12 months.

The messages were almost always from fake, computer-generated profiles – “Virtual Cupids” – created by the defendants, with photos and information designed to closely mimic the profiles of real people. A small “v” encircled by a “C” on the profile page was the only indication that the profiles were fake. Users were not likely to see – much less understand – this icon. The fake profiles and messages caused many users to upgrade to paid subscriptions.
It's actually somewhat surprising that they even indicated that the profiles were fake with that tiny VC logo. I would have expected that a company doing this sort of thing wouldn't have even bothered. Given that this sort of thing seems to happen quite a bit on dating sites, I wonder if lots of other dating sites are now rushing to scrub fake profiles...

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Submission + - Iron Man costume made on the shoulders of giants (opensource.com)

Submitted by Jason Hibbets
Jason Hibbets writes: How much do you like Iron Man? Enough to make your own Iron Man costume? Meet Jeremy Hansen, a software engineer and web developer at Red Hat. Costume making, or cosplay (short for costume play), is his hobby. And he made his own Iron Man costume. But he couldn't have done it without a great community of designers and people sharing techniques and source files. Get ready for Halloween in this interview with Jeremy.

Submission + - HP Unveils Industrial 3D Printer 10X Faster, 50% Cheaper Than Current Systems (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: HP today announced an 3D industrial printer that it said will be half the cost of current additive manufacturing systems while also 10 times faster, enabling production parts to be built. The company also announced Sprout, a new immersive computing platform that combines a 23-in touch screen monitor and horizontal capacitive touch mat with a scanner, depth sensor, hi-res camera, and projector in a single desktop device. HP's Multi Jet Fusion printer will be offered to beta customers early next year and is expected to be generally available in 2016. The machine uses a print bar with 30,000 nozzles spraying 350 million drops a second of thermoplastic or other materials onto a print platform. The Multi Jet Fusion printer uses fused deposition modeling, an additive manufacturing technology first invented in 1990. the printer works by first laying down a layer of powder material across a build area. Then a fusing agent is selectively applied with the page-wide print bar. Then the same print bar applies a detailing agent at the parts edge to give high definition. The material is then exposed to an energy source that fuses it.

Submission + - Power -- And by that I mean Free Broadband -- To the People

Submitted by NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: Slashdot member and open source developer Ben Kallos @KallosEsq — who is now a NYC Councilman — is pushing to make it a precondition to Comcast's merging with Time Warner that it agree to provide free broadband to all public housing residents in the City (and by free I mean free as in beer). Kallos, along with NY's Public Advocate, Letitia James, are leading a group of state and local politicians calling on Comcast to help bridge the digital divide in NY.

Submission + - Avalanche on an asteroid, due to close pass with Earth (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: On Friday the 13th in April 2029, a football field–sized asteroid named Apophis is expected to pass, with luck, within a hair’s breadth of Earth. The space rock won’t do any damage to Earth—it’s predicted to pass at a safe distance of at least 35,000 kilometers—but the reverse may not be true. A new study finds that the near miss could trigger tiny avalanches on Apophis.

Submission + - Improve Your Dev, Ops, and Kittens collaboration with DevOps on Kittens

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: DevOps on Kittens is here to provide you with ways to integrate kittens into your DevOps initiative — from concepts, to how-to articles, to specific products that will make your kittens more productive and your enterprise more successful. Their first article, Use Central Configuration Right Meow, discusses one of the most important fundamentals of the DevOps movement.

Comment Re:Looking out the window? (Score 0) 757

by Xentor (#41410423) Attached to: Rapid Arctic Melt Called 'Planetary Emergency'

When we look out the window, we see one of three things, depending on living situation:

1) An air shaft
2) Other buildings, which block our view of such interesting phenomena
3) A beautiful skyline... Except the people that see this are too rich to care.

So yes, we fail to notice...

Then it shows up on TV, and since we're busy doing ten things at once, we think it's just a commercial or a movie trailer, and ignore it. Either that, or we're so bored that we think, "Hey, that'll liven things up a bit!"

(I am a New Yorker, but I'm mostly joking about most of the above)

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