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Bitcoin

Square Market Now Accepts Bitcoin 94

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the with-a-side-of-increased-fraud dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Square today announced it has added support for paying with Bitcoin. As a result, buyers can now use the digital currency to purchase goods and services on Square Market, which allows sellers to create an online storefront with online payment processing. The mobile payment company promises the experience won't feel any different for sellers and they 'don't have to change a thing, except potentially expecting new trailblazing customers and more sales.' In other words, Square wants them to be able to offer Bitcoin as a payment option without any headaches." Stripe is also adding beta support for Bitcoin as a funding source. No word from Paypal yet.
The Almighty Buck

Smartphone Kill-Switch Could Save Consumers $2.6 Billion 218

Posted by samzenpus from the kill-it dept.
itwbennett (1594911) writes "Creighton University professor William Duckworth has released a report finding that kill-switch technology that remotely makes a stolen smartphone useless could save American consumers up to $2.6 billion per year — mostly from reduced insurance premiums. Duckworth estimated that Americans currently spend around $580 million replacing stolen phones each year and $4.8 billion paying for handset insurance. If a kill-switch led to a sharp reduction in theft of phones, most of the $580 million spent on replacing stolen phones would be saved. And a further $2 billion in savings could be realized by switching to cheaper insurance plans that don't cover theft."

Comment Re:You don't want to see IR (Score 1) 99

by coinreturn (#46620959) Attached to: Contact Lenses With Infrared Vision?

For practical purposes (like night vision), sure, definitely useful. But for everyday "recreational" use, you really don't want to see people's blood vessels, etc. Given the choice, I'd much rather see UV.

Are you kidding? How about, "I would shake your hand, but according to my contacts, you have a fever."
Crime

Mt. Gox Questioned By Employees For At Least 2 Years Before Crisis 134

Posted by samzenpus from the I'm-not-sure-about-this dept.
Rambo Tribble (1273454) writes "Reuters reports that Mt. Gox employees began to question the handling of funds at least two years ago. Although only CEO Mark Karpeles had full access to financial records, a group of a half-dozen employees began to suspect client funds were being diverted to cover operating costs, which included Karpeles' toys, such as a 'racing version of the Honda Civic imported from Britain.' Employees confronted Karpeles in early 2012, only to be given vague assurances with a 'pay no attention to the man behind the curtain' ring. Unfortunately, since Mt. Gox was not regulated as a financial institution under Japanese law, it is unclear what recourse might be gained in pursuing this question."
Government

CISPA's Author Has Another Privacy-Killing Bill To Pass Before He Retires 138

Posted by Soulskill from the get-while-the-gettin's-good dept.
Daniel_Stuckey writes: "You might remember House Intelligence Chair Mike Rogers, a Republican from Michigan, from his lovely, universally-hated CISPA cybersecurity bill that would have allowed nearly seamless information sharing between companies and the federal government. You might also remember him from his c'est la vie attitude towards civil liberties in general. Well, we've got some good news and some bad news: Rogers announced today that he won't seek re-election and is instead retiring from politics to start a conservative talk radio show on Cumulus. The bad news? He's got at least one terrible, civil liberties-killing bill to try to push through Congress before he goes. Like CISPA, the newly introduced 'FISA Transparency and Modernization Act,' seeks to make it easier for the federal government to get your information from companies."
Transportation

More Than 1 In 4 Car Crashes Involve Cellphone Use 367

Posted by samzenpus from the keep-your-eyes-on-the-road-your-hands-upon-the-wheel dept.
schwit1 (797399) writes "Texting and driving is dangerous but a new survey finds talking on a cellphone while behind the wheel may be even worse. The National Safety Council's annual report found 26 percent of all crashes are tied to phone use, but noted just 5 percent involved texting. Safety advocates are lobbying now for a total ban on driver phone use, pointing to studies that headsets do not reduce driver distraction."
Transportation

Prototype Volvo Flywheel Tech Uses Car's Wasted Brake Energy 262

Posted by timothy from the price-is-them-mother-of-invention dept.
cartechboy (2660665) writes "Sometimes we get carried away with sexy moonshot car tech--whereas most everyday gains are about reducing inefficiencies, piece by piece. Volvo's flywheel energy-recovery prototype is a great example of the latter--not to mention similar to one used in Formula 1 racing. The system recaptures energy that would be wasted in braking, like a hybrid does, to reduce fuel consumption by up to 25 percent. When you hit the brakes, kinetic energy that's usually wasted as heat is transferred to a "Kinetic Energy Recovery System" mounted to the undriven axle. It spools up a carbon flywheel that turns at 60,000 rpm to store the energy. When the driver hits the gas, some of the stored energy is transferred back to power the wheels through a specially designed transmission, either boosting total power to the wheels or substituting for engine torque to cut fuel consumption."
Earth

Introducing a Calendar System For the Information Age 224

Posted by timothy from the might-not-last-a-whole-week dept.
First time accepted submitter chimeraha (3594169) writes "Synchronized with the northern winter solstice and the UNIX Epoch, the terran computational calendar contains 13 identical months of 28 days each in addition to a short Month Zero containing only new year's day and a single leap year day every four years (with the exception of every 128 years). The beginning of this zero-based numbering calendar, denoted as 0.0.0.0.0.0 TC, is on the solstice, exactly 10 days before the UNIX Epoch (effectively, December 22nd, 1969 00:00:00 UTC in the Gregorian Calendar). It's "terran" inception and unit durations reflect the human biological clock and align with astronomical cycles and epochs. Its "computational" notation, start date, and algorithm are tailored towards the mathematicians & scientists tasked with calendrical programming and precise time calculation.

There's a lot more information at terrancalendar.com including a date conversion form and a handfull of code-snipits & apps for implementing the terran computational calendar."

Comment Re:Um. WRONG. (Score 1) 323

I agree with you on the 100%. That comment wasn't mine. I have only had Netflix for about 5 months and so far it has generally kept me happy. Yes, they don't have everything, but they do have a lot. And I have watched a lot of series on it (Breaking Bad, House of Cards). I suspect that if you've had it a long time, the value goes down unless they have a pretty serious supply of new stuff on a regular basis.

Comment Re:Um. WRONG. (Score 1) 323

Netflix is 100% satisfying.

Sure, if you are satisfied by most of the top 200 movies on IMDB not being available there...

Most academy award winners? Not present. Most Oscar winners? Not present. Most Sundance Film Festival Winners? Not present. ...

I don't believe you're being fair. This year's winners might not be there, but previous years' are. Unless you need to watch the latest movies, there is plenty on Netflix. We sometimes have three different Netflix feeds going at once in our house (Verizon FIOS) and it is extremely rare to see any stalling. YMMV.

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