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Submission + - Dying bees: a new nail in the coffin (liberation.fr)

Submitted by boule75
boule75 writes: Mr. Sylvestre Huet compiles (fr) the results of a French study (us) concerning the combined effects of parasites and insecticides on bees.

Considered alone, those insecticides are somewhat innocuous for the bees. But for bees already affected by Nosema ceranae, even a very low dose of fipronil or thiaclopride appears to be deadly. And since changing the molecule does not change the result, it may prove difficult to find suitable insecticides to save bees.

As if one bane was not enough, Asian hornets (fr) are invading south-western France and hunting bees along their path...
Displays

Submission + - DisplayPort-To-HDMI Cables Illegal, Face Recall 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "PC Magazine reports that the licensing company overseeing the HDMI specification has confirmed that existing Mini DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapters which are designed by several cable makers and sold by several PC OEMs, are apparently illegal and could be recalled. According to Charlene Wan, director of marketing for HDMI LLC, any cable that does not include HDMI connectors on both ends violates the specification. "The HDMI specification defines an HDMI cable as having ONLY HDMI connectors on the ends," says Wan. "Anything else is not a licensed use of the specification and therefore, not allowed." That apparently includes Apple's mini-DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapters, which are sold by Belkin on Apple's Web site. However a representative for Belkin denies that the cable it sells on Apple's Web site is illegal. "Essentially, the product you mention in your post is not out of compliance because it is just an adaptor and not a cable," the representative wrote in an email. "We do not sell a cable with a male Mini-DP and male HDMI port, which is what falls out of compliance with the spec. HDMI does recognize a product that has a Mini-DP connector and HDMI receptacle with an internal active circuitry as it falls into the definition of a source device." There may also be a glimmer of hope, in that HDMI Org understands that there is a need for this type of cable: "We do recognise that there may be a market need for a cable solution rather than a dongle solution. However, at this time, there is no way to produce these cable products in a licensed manner.""

Comment Re:Hmm (Score 1) 779

by boule75 (#33880486) Attached to: Pope Says Technology Causes Confusion Between Reality and Fiction
Omnipotent means that God can do what He wants, but that does not mean that He always wants to control everything.

I bet He does not want it, for a simple reason: that would be no fun at all, not interresting at all, pointless.

One could even argue that free will is the Gift of God to mankind, you know, like in Tolkien's world...

Comment Re:It's Alcatel-Lucent btw (Score 1) 185

by boule75 (#33857760) Attached to: Squeezing More Bandwidth Out of Fiber
Well it depends: Alcatel spent the money to acquire Lucent but the whole management is now American, and the jobs too are shored away from France at an accelerated pace (directly to Asia, no need to hire in the US either). So seen from the interior it seems the US company has bought the French one and proceeds as usual.

We French are apparently accustomed to be f***ed up hard by the US and we love it ! See the brilliant adventures of Renault, EDF with Constellation, and Executive life with the Credit Lyonnais, compensations 10 times lower for French citizens compared to US citizens blasted in the same plane, etc, etc, etc, the list is endless.

We love you !

Submission + - Record Companies lose, Artists gain (espen.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After 10 years of digitalization of music, the average (Norwegian) musician's income has increased by 66%. As a group, the only losers in digital music seems to be the record companies. This is the conclusion of a M.Sc. study done by students Richard Bjerkøe and Anders Sørbo at the Norwegian School of Management BI in Oslo.

The thesis "The Norwegian Music Industry in the Age of Digitalization" shows that the musicians' income increase is due to increased income from concerts, various collection agencies and stipends from the government in the period from 1999 to 2009. During the same period, record sales have decreased by about 50%. The fall in income from record sales is less important for the musicians, however, since, on average, they only receive 15% of record sales, whereas they receive on average 50% from concerts and 80% from collection agencies (who collects provisions from radio play and other uses of the artists' productions.)

Submission + - Nvidia Sells Graphics Cards At Best Buy (crn.com)

Submitted by cgriffin21
cgriffin21 writes: Nvidia has begun producing some of its own graphics cards and making them available to retailers. So far, it's only building and supporting certain models of its GeForce line and making them available at Best Buy. However, this represents a significant strategic shift for a company that has made billions designing GPU architectures alone. In the past, Nvidia has left it to a number of its partners including Asus, PNY, and EVGA to build, package, and sell the chips at retail. In so doing, it has avoided the costs of manufacturing and marketing these chips.

Comment Re:In the meantime, we in the USA... (Score 2, Insightful) 267

by boule75 (#33745426) Attached to: Chinese High-Speed Train Sets New World Record
<quote><p>Spending money is not good for an economy. Spending money EFFICIENTLY is.</p></quote>
You're right, that's the optimal thing.

<quote><p>However time and time again governments (which account for a vast chunk of total spending) have proven themselves to be incapable of this.</p></quote>

First , it very much depends of the timeframe you're placing yourself in, or of the expenses you're talking of. For instance "government" overhead for managing medicare is apparently very small compared that of privately runned health insurance companies.
Publicly runned health systems in Europe cost less and are vastly more efficient than the US private version...
Then consider building a bridge : it will cost a lot and could possibly become profitable only in the very long run. Furthermore, many of its benefit are probably hidden. So there is no incentive for the private sector to build that bridge even though it may be very useful and profitable for society as a whole in the long run.
And who would run an honest army for a profit ?

Second : there are so many idle spendings in the private sector that are truly worthless that you're surely joking. Advertisement is one, vast sums hijacked by the financial sector are another, especially when the government bails it out...

I am all for efficient spending, from the government of from the private sector.

Comment Re:Wrong! (Score 1) 267

by boule75 (#33745270) Attached to: Chinese High-Speed Train Sets New World Record
The record took place on the regular Paris-Reims line, which had just been built. Those new TGV lines are systematically built to avoid road crossings on the line and are equipped with high and sturdy fences to hold back big mamals from trespassing.

So yes, the catenary was especially tensed, the train was somewhat customised (bigger wheels) but the tracks were "standard" : they just choose the straightest part of the line to set up the record.

To come back to the Chinese line : how long does it take to accelerate and to brake from the top speed to zero ? Is that comfortable ?
Sci-Fi

Paul Krugman Awarded Nobel Prize For Economics 425

Posted by kdawson from the too-smart-fr-government dept.
zogger writes in his journal, "The guy who put together the concept of geographical location combined with cheap transportation leading to 'like trades with like' and the rise of superindustrial trading blocs has won the Nobel economics science prize. He's a bigtime critic of a lot of this administration's policies, and is unabashedly an FDR-economy styled fella. Here is his blog at the NYTimes." Reader yoyoq adds that Krugman's career choice was inspired by reading Asimov's Foundation series at a young age.

Comment Re:We told you so (Score 3, Insightful) 365

by boule75 (#21072909) Attached to: Microsoft Finally Bows to EU Antitrust Measures
Absolutely, mod this up !

Nelly Kroes from the EU just declared Victory to retreat faster. Please read and link the EU press release, there (English only): http://www.europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/1567&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

- Any decisions as to wether Microsoft complies will be made by an English court, some day, with a rule probably but which one nobody knows. But - by Jove ! - those rules have just changed... More delays, more legal battles, more defeats for the good guys.
- They have not settled about the fees... Or has Reuters more information? Or more disinformation?
- The press release if filled with patent-talk (with consequences) even while software patents are still not recognised in the EU. In this respect, this IS a full blown victory for the huge patent troll that is MSFT, because the commission plays by US-UK rule.

Conclusion: the US corps rule the EU through proxies. It's as simple as that.

Next: more GM food, getting rid of all those bees, enforcing all those patents on living things created long ago. "Someone patented a one-click, so I patented a gene. And _I_ earn money with it! Waaaaa!!!"

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