Comment Re:Does anyone need to learn that torture hurts? (Score 1) 249
There you go doing that thinking thing again. There's no future in it. Stop it, or we'll apply the electrodes... again.
Submission + - MS Seeks Patent on Monitoring Employees' Brains
theodp writes: "A just-published Microsoft patent application for Monitoring Group Activities describes how a company or the government can determine if employees are not meeting their project deadlines through the use of detection components comprised of 'one or more physiological or environmental sensors to detect at least one of heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement, facial movements, facial expressions, and blood pressure.'"
Submission + - 57 mpg? That's so 20 years ago 6
maclizard writes: "I wish my car got 57 miles to the gallon.
From the article:
'The CRX HF got an Environmental Protection Agency-estimated 57 mpg gallon in highway driving. Today, the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid Civic you can buy gets an EPA-estimated 34 mpg on the highway. Even today's Honda Civic Hybrid can't match it, achieving EPA-estimated highway mileage of just 45 mpg. The Toyota Prius, today's fuel mileage champ, gets 46 mpg on the highway.'"
From the article:
'The CRX HF got an Environmental Protection Agency-estimated 57 mpg gallon in highway driving. Today, the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid Civic you can buy gets an EPA-estimated 34 mpg on the highway. Even today's Honda Civic Hybrid can't match it, achieving EPA-estimated highway mileage of just 45 mpg. The Toyota Prius, today's fuel mileage champ, gets 46 mpg on the highway.'"
Submission + - $1 Million Speaker Cable Challenge Accepted
Adam Blake writes: "$1 Million Speaker Cable Challenge Accepted
Audiophile Reviewer Michael Fremer Agrees to Double-Blind Loudspeaker Cable Test
Newton, Mass. — October 15, 2007 — Responding to accusations that the high-fidelity Pear Cable Anjou loudspeaker cables could not be differentiated from typical equivalent Monster Cable, Michael Fremer, writer for Stereophile Magazine and musicangle.com, has agreed to double-blind listening tests to prove that cables can be differentiated sonically. Accuser James Randi has claimed to offer a $1 million dollar prize if the high-fidelity cables can be detected.
While Pear Cable remains highly skeptical that the challenge is genuine, full support for Michael Fremer's effort has been offered. Although the cables to be used in the test have not yet been selected, Pear Cable has offered to loan Mr. Fremer any Pear cables necessary to conduct the test if he desires to use them.
To date, James Randi has provided no scientific evidence of any kind to support his accusations. No test protocol for the challenge was stipulated in the original accusation, however James Randi reserves the right to change test protocol in any way he personally desires.
Official rules for the James Randi Educational Foundation challenge state that $1 Million will be paid to "any person who can demonstrate any psychic, supernatural or paranormal ability." Michael Fremer has expressly stated as a condition of his challenge acceptance that he does not possess any psychic, supernatural, or paranormal abilities, and that he does not believe he has above average hearing. Fremer has also asked that interconnects be tested in addition to loudspeaker cables unless James Randi will concede that they affect sound quality.
About Pear Cable, Inc.
Pear Cable is a manufacturer of high fidelity audio cables for both home and car audio. Using custom designed manufacturing equipment and cutting edge scientific principles; Pear Cable brings quality products to the audio marketplace. For more information visit: http://www.pearcable.com/"
Audiophile Reviewer Michael Fremer Agrees to Double-Blind Loudspeaker Cable Test
Newton, Mass. — October 15, 2007 — Responding to accusations that the high-fidelity Pear Cable Anjou loudspeaker cables could not be differentiated from typical equivalent Monster Cable, Michael Fremer, writer for Stereophile Magazine and musicangle.com, has agreed to double-blind listening tests to prove that cables can be differentiated sonically. Accuser James Randi has claimed to offer a $1 million dollar prize if the high-fidelity cables can be detected.
While Pear Cable remains highly skeptical that the challenge is genuine, full support for Michael Fremer's effort has been offered. Although the cables to be used in the test have not yet been selected, Pear Cable has offered to loan Mr. Fremer any Pear cables necessary to conduct the test if he desires to use them.
To date, James Randi has provided no scientific evidence of any kind to support his accusations. No test protocol for the challenge was stipulated in the original accusation, however James Randi reserves the right to change test protocol in any way he personally desires.
Official rules for the James Randi Educational Foundation challenge state that $1 Million will be paid to "any person who can demonstrate any psychic, supernatural or paranormal ability." Michael Fremer has expressly stated as a condition of his challenge acceptance that he does not possess any psychic, supernatural, or paranormal abilities, and that he does not believe he has above average hearing. Fremer has also asked that interconnects be tested in addition to loudspeaker cables unless James Randi will concede that they affect sound quality.
About Pear Cable, Inc.
Pear Cable is a manufacturer of high fidelity audio cables for both home and car audio. Using custom designed manufacturing equipment and cutting edge scientific principles; Pear Cable brings quality products to the audio marketplace. For more information visit: http://www.pearcable.com/"
Submission + - AOL to Cut Global Work Force by 20 Pct
Anonymous Coward writes: "http://finance.comcast.net/www/news.html?x=http://www.comcast.net/data/news/2007/10/15/788505.xml&cvqh=itn_aol
AOL to Cut Global Work Force by 20 Pct
By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer
1 HOUR AGO
NEW YORK — AOL is cutting its global work force by an additional 2,000 jobs as it continues a transition from Internet access provider to online advertising company.
The elimination of 20 percent of its work force comes on top of 5,000 positions cut last fall, after AOL said it would try to boost traffic to its ad-supported Web sites by giving away AOL.com e-mail accounts, software and other features once reserved for paying subscribers.
"This realignment will allow us to increase investment in high-growth areas of the company _ as an example, we added hundreds of people this year through acquisitions _ while scaling back in areas with less growth potential or those that aren't core to our business," AOL Chief Executive Randy Falco told employees Monday.
The cuts affect about 1,200 positions in the United States, including 750 in northern Virginia, which has long been AOL's headquarters. AOL recently announced it was moving its headquarters to New York to be closer to the media advertising industry.
Most of the U.S. employees affected were to be informed and terminated Tuesday, while reductions abroad were expected by year's end. Severance packages are to include at least four months' pay.
Last year's reductions were mostly in customer-service and marketing personnel as AOL opted to stop producing and distributing its famous trial discs aimed to luring new customers to its Internet access subscriptions. The latest cuts were expected to affect employees across the board.
In a memo to employees, obtained by The Associated Press, Falco said the cuts should strengthen AOL and its vision of building "the largest and most sophisticated global advertising network while we grow the size and engagement of our worldwide audience."
Last month, AOL announced that it was consolidating its advertising operations to share innovations across the company and help potential advertisers more easily buy ads across AOL properties and third-party sites that have become part of the AOL network through various acquisitions.
AOL has been counting on ad growth to offset declines in subscription revenue, which continued to plummet, as expected, following its strategy shift in August 2006. AOL had 10.9 million paying U.S. subscribers for Internet access as of June 30, a 60 percent drop from its peak of 26.7 million in September 2002.
After four quarters of at least 40 percent growth, though, AOL ad revenues increased by only 16 percent in the April-June period.
Workers at AOL's Dulles, Va., campus had speculated for weeks that big layoffs were coming. Speculation intensified last week, when workers reported seeing large pallets of empty cardboard shipping boxes arrive at an AOL warehouse, presumably for laid-off workers to empty their desks.
AOL has undergone several rounds of layoffs in recent years. Monday's announcement reflects the first major reductions since Falco took over as chief executive in November.
None of the reductions is directly related to the headquarters move from Dulles, as most of those employees already work in New York. Senior executives like Falco, meanwhile, are expected to keep offices at both locations.
Shares in AOL LLC's parent company, Time Warner Inc., dropped 17 cents to $18.81 in Monday trading."
AOL to Cut Global Work Force by 20 Pct
By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer
1 HOUR AGO
NEW YORK — AOL is cutting its global work force by an additional 2,000 jobs as it continues a transition from Internet access provider to online advertising company.
The elimination of 20 percent of its work force comes on top of 5,000 positions cut last fall, after AOL said it would try to boost traffic to its ad-supported Web sites by giving away AOL.com e-mail accounts, software and other features once reserved for paying subscribers.
"This realignment will allow us to increase investment in high-growth areas of the company _ as an example, we added hundreds of people this year through acquisitions _ while scaling back in areas with less growth potential or those that aren't core to our business," AOL Chief Executive Randy Falco told employees Monday.
The cuts affect about 1,200 positions in the United States, including 750 in northern Virginia, which has long been AOL's headquarters. AOL recently announced it was moving its headquarters to New York to be closer to the media advertising industry.
Most of the U.S. employees affected were to be informed and terminated Tuesday, while reductions abroad were expected by year's end. Severance packages are to include at least four months' pay.
Last year's reductions were mostly in customer-service and marketing personnel as AOL opted to stop producing and distributing its famous trial discs aimed to luring new customers to its Internet access subscriptions. The latest cuts were expected to affect employees across the board.
In a memo to employees, obtained by The Associated Press, Falco said the cuts should strengthen AOL and its vision of building "the largest and most sophisticated global advertising network while we grow the size and engagement of our worldwide audience."
Last month, AOL announced that it was consolidating its advertising operations to share innovations across the company and help potential advertisers more easily buy ads across AOL properties and third-party sites that have become part of the AOL network through various acquisitions.
AOL has been counting on ad growth to offset declines in subscription revenue, which continued to plummet, as expected, following its strategy shift in August 2006. AOL had 10.9 million paying U.S. subscribers for Internet access as of June 30, a 60 percent drop from its peak of 26.7 million in September 2002.
After four quarters of at least 40 percent growth, though, AOL ad revenues increased by only 16 percent in the April-June period.
Workers at AOL's Dulles, Va., campus had speculated for weeks that big layoffs were coming. Speculation intensified last week, when workers reported seeing large pallets of empty cardboard shipping boxes arrive at an AOL warehouse, presumably for laid-off workers to empty their desks.
AOL has undergone several rounds of layoffs in recent years. Monday's announcement reflects the first major reductions since Falco took over as chief executive in November.
None of the reductions is directly related to the headquarters move from Dulles, as most of those employees already work in New York. Senior executives like Falco, meanwhile, are expected to keep offices at both locations.
Shares in AOL LLC's parent company, Time Warner Inc., dropped 17 cents to $18.81 in Monday trading."
Submission + - What is a Good Web Design? (pinoyitpro.com)
Submission + - US Navy warships can't take pounding waves? (networkworld.com)
coondoggie writes: "It would be pretty dicey for the US Navy to have destroyers that couldn't take the pounding of heavy seas across their bows but that seems to be the case. The US Navy today admitted that many of its 51 Arleigh Burke-class (DDG) destroyers currently in service have serious structural defects, with repairs and bow-strengthening work to cost at least $62 million, according to a press statement from Jane's Navy International.
The USN has confirmed to Jane's 'class-wide' structural buckling in the destroyers, with a source saying the impact of rough-sea slamming on the bow has led to the warping of main transverse bulkhead beams and some of the cribbing, Jane's said.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/20610"
Submission + - LucidTouch: A See-Through Mobile Device (youtube.com)
Patrick Baudisch writes: "This video shows LucidTouch, a mobile device that is "pseudo transparent", i.e., it allows users to see their fingers through the screen. Users interact with screen contents using multiple fingers on the back of the device. LucidTouch solves a problem traditional touchscreens are facing: it prevents the user's fingers from occluding screen contents."
Submission + - A chip that serves HD video wirelessly across home (venturebeat.com)
Bayscribe writes: "Silicon Valley chip company Amimon has released what it says is the first ever chip that serves high-definition uncompressed video wirelessly across the whole home.
The company's chips stream HD video up to 150 feet, at an effective 250 to 800 megabits per second, or about 10 times the capacity of WiFi. Its technology matches the capacity of the best of the numerous competing chip makers, many of them using an alternative Ultrawideband technology.
The chip could spur on the HDTV revolution, allowing consumers to more easily equip their flat-panel TVs with wireless."
Submission + - Seagate says had no buy offer from Chinese firm (reuters.com)
dill writes: HONG KONG (Reuters) — Seagate Technology, the world's largest maker of disk drives, has dashed speculation that a Chinese firm wanted to buy the firm, saying it had received no such offer and had no intention of selling.
Submission + - 360 Degree Light Field Display
Gary writes: "Designed by USC's Institute for Creative Technologies the Interactive 360 Degree Light Field Display won the Best Emerging Technology Award at SIGGRAPH 2007. The system is capable of producing 3D images which can be viewed by multiple users. The display uses a standard programmable graphics card to render over 5,000 images per second of interactive 3D graphics, projecting 360-degree views with 1.25 degree separation up to 20 updates per second. As the video shows it is capable of Star Wars styled Holographic Style Projections."
Submission + - IBM to go "Green"
lucabrasi999 writes: Big Blue has announced an effort to become more green. IBM is the largest Data Center operator in the world, and it will be introducing technology to reduce data center energy consumption and also offer those technologies to customers. By 2010, IBM plans on doubling the computing power at its own data centers without increasing energy consumption.
Submission + - Red Hat Open Source Marketplace
GNU Guy writes: Red Hat announced their Red Hat Exchange yesterday. Apparently you can now buy support for a bunch of open source software (EnterpriseDB, MySQL, Zimbra and Zenoss to name a few) directly from Red Hat. My question is would you rather go to Red Hat or directly to the source? Obviously this service is only available for Red Hat Enteprise Linux users but it would be nice to use up2date to get all my non-Red Hat software. What do other ./ers think?
Submission + - Apple's Jobs takes (another) swing at Greenpeace
coondoggie writes: "Apple CEO Steve Job took a big swipe at Greenpeace and two of its representatives attending Apple's shareholder meeting this week saying: "I think your organization particularly depends too much on principle and not enough on fact," Jobs said to the Greenpeace representatives. "You guys rate people based on what people say their plans are in the distant future, not what they are doing today. I think you put way too much weight on these glorified principles and way too little weight on science and engineering. It would be very helpful if your organization hired a few more engineers and actually entered into dialog with companies to find out what they are really doing and not just listen to all the flowery language when in reality most of them aren't doing anything. That's my opinion."
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1507 1"
Submission + - Google Draws Line With Thailand
lifuchi writes: "The Big G finds itself in yet another dispute and in the limelight. Two months ago Thailand blocked video clips uploaded on YouTube which were considered insulting to the Thai King. "Google has agreed to block four of the 12 clips on the ground that they broke Thailand's laws against insulting the King. Six others cited by Thailand have been dropped by their creators, or because they violated YouTube's code of conduct.""
