Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:It still hurt T-Mobile bad (Score 3, Interesting) 176

I know a lot of people who's contracts were up and jumped ship on the news that AT&T was going to buy them. I don't know the percentage but every T-Mobile subscriber I know all moved to other carriers when they heard the initial announcement

That is why AT&T is going to pay them around 3 Billion in compensation.

So, T-Mobile is undersubscribed, (Wee, bandwidth!) and gets 3 billion to build up their network with... Invest 85/15% in infrastructure / the advertising campaign they're gonna need, and they might well become a significant player on the US market again, wouldn't you say?

And full speed LTE on a carrier with a solid network is a beautiful thing.

Encryption

MIT Software Allows Queries On Encrypted Databases 68

Sparrowvsrevolution writes "CryptDB, a piece of database software that MIT researchers presented at the Symposium on Operating System Principles in October, allows users to send queries to an encrypted SQL database and get results without decrypting the stored information. CryptDB works by nesting data in several layers of cryptography (PDF), each of which has a different key and allows a different kind of simple operation on encrypted data. It doesn't work with every kind of calculation, and it's not the first system to offer this sort of computation on encrypted data. But it may be the only practical one. A previous crypto scheme that allowed operations on encrypted data multiplied computing time by a factor of a trillion. This one adds only 15-26%."
Space

Building Blocks of DNA Confirmed In Meteorites 145

MistrX writes "Researchers announced that the components of DNA have now been confirmed to exist in extraterrestrial meteorites. A different team of scientists also discovered a number of molecules linked with a vital ancient biological process, adding weight to the idea that the earliest forms of life on Earth may have been made up in part from materials delivered to Earth from space. Past research had revealed a range of building blocks of life in meteorites, such as the amino acids that make up proteins. Space rocks just like these may have been a vital source of the organic compounds that gave rise to life on Earth."

Comment Re:Spotify (Score 1) 151

Those numbers are over a year old, when Spotify was still very young and few people signed up for the Premium service.

Today, these numbers, and by extension band income, have improved to the point where at least Fono (The association for independent Norwegian record companies) have reversed their stance from ~the time you specify, and now recommend artists embrace Spotify.

The deals Spotify sign are secret, so we don't know exactly how much they're getting - but income is improving and will likely improve even more - as the Free service has been reduced to 20 hours/month, and paying for Premium is required for things like streaming to your mobile (the feature that convinced me to upgrade).

So yes, the artists should celebrate getting paid ever growing amounts (as more Premium users enter the service) through an innovative service rather than people just downloading their stuff for free.

Not to mention that the most common 'legal alternative' is streaming both music and video from Youtube for free...

Comment Missing option: Robotic Sheep (Score 1) 312

It seems to make sense that if Androids dream of Electric Sheep, I should start dreaming of Robotic Sheep any day now.

Well that's what Cyborgs ought to do, don't you think?

Besides - given the alternatives, at the current level of robotic technology that's about the level I'd be comfortable with a fully robotic solution ;-)

If things go as well as I hope within 10 years I will have a large, heavily advanced robotic part in me. An Artificial Lung, to be specific. They've already got them working, so I hope that in 10 years I can add one to my heavily reduced capacity, and maybe even move further downwards from the oxygen levels at the peak of Kilimanjaro, or so.

You know, you guys at sea level have way more oxygen. And if I could get an artificial lung added to my current heavily oxygen-limited capacity (If I tried participating in the Olympics (friends are welcome to start the jokes about me qualifying for the olympics just about now), I'd be disqualified for the number of red blood cells in my blood samples. Blood doping, the birth-defect way. Would be cool to suddenly have a working body again. I'll need some kind of pump for my heart function at some point, though, as my heart is growing alarmingly large.

These are the problems microrobotics will (and is) solving, and also the parts we'll come to trust first.

Would also be cool if the 'Part-Robotic Superhero' things turn out to be realistic. Given the levels of recent top-notch military technology, I rather believe I'd become a fairly effective soldier as a cyborg/enhanced human. I hope they don't stick optical cables into my brain - because it does seem preferable to be in control of my own body.

I wonder when we'll see partly braindead soldiers 'resurrected' as remote-controlled flesh drones utilizing two-way optogenetics and stem cell networks...

Comment Re:Yay. (Score 4, Informative) 271

Oh, and a good way to force Cisco to make some kind of statement would be to request them from your Cisco representatives, on Cisco forums like http://forums.cisco.com/ecom/web/sms3/forums/-/message_boards/category/13121 , etc.

Sending printed letters to

Cisco Systems, Inc.
170 West Tasman Dr.
San Jose, CA 95134 USA

is also probably a good idea.

I mean, if they lay flat, fire the legal team in question and commit to publically planning how to ensure abuses of process of this scale, or even far lower scales will never happen again, that'd probably be a good move.

If they don't respond with a great amount of humility and regret, I know I'll stay as far away from Cisco and their surrounding chain of companies as practical, and make a habit of informing my customers on good reasons to avoid Cisco.

Minor correction :-p

Comment Re:Yay. (Score 2) 271

Oh, and a good way to force Cisco to make some kind of statement would be to request them from your Cisco representatives, on Cisco forums like http://forums.cisco.com/ecom/web/sms3/forums/-/message_boards/category/13121 , etc.

Sending printed letters to

Cisco Systems, Inc.
170 West Tasman Dr.
San Jose, CA 95134 USA

is also probably a good idea.

I mean, if they lay flat, fire the legal team in question and commit to publically planning how to ensure abuses of process of this scale, or even far lower scales will happen again, that'd probably be a good move.

If they don't respond with a great amount of humility and regret, I know I'll stay as far away from Cisco and their surrounding chain of companies as practical, and make a habit of informing my customers on good reasons to avoid Cisco.

Comment Re:Yay. (Score 5, Interesting) 271

The current judgement was only to apply the 'stay of proceedings' on the extradition request, as that was what the client sought. It appears Mr. Adekeye will be launching a claim against Cisco, and hopefully this will get the mainstream media on the story.

He's been trying to enter the U.S. for years, but would not break visa (which has also apparently been used against him, and Cisco attemting contempt of court pleadings even though they very clearly knew exactly why he was not there, and where he was.

Claiming he was a Nigerian citizen pretending to travel under a U.K. password and 'claiming to live in Switzerland'. This lie was repeated during the extradition request to the Canadian authorities, even though his completely valid U.K. passport had very recently spent 5 weeks in the London U.S. Embassy, a fact that was also known to Cisco and presumably Cisco's councel.

If the U.S. authorities wanted him arrested, the easiest way would have been to respond to one of his multiple and very recent requests to enter the U.S.

There's a lot more, if someone else who read the whole thing could respond with more highlights, that'd probably be informative.

In conclusion, what seems to have happened here is that Cisco, in retaliation for a lawsuit against them, has colluded illegally with the U.S. Justice Department on using deceit and lies, abuse of process and every legal bullshit tactic the nastiest lawyer team from hell could think up to put the defendant under maximum legal pressure since a company he is involved with had the audacity to sue Cisco. Oh, and the settlement in the lawsuit seems to have favored said company and not Cisco.

This is so nasty I'll be demanding a written response from Cisco on what measures they are taking to ensure this never happens again if I am to be in conscience ever to recommend a Cisco product again.

And I hope his suit for damages (and hopefully punitive damage) gets the attention it deserves and that he is awarded ample millions and Cisco and the Department of Justice a public and very heavy black eye. This is behavior we cannot accept from corporations or anyone.

Australia

Apple Slashes Australian App Store Prices To Match US 81

An anonymous reader writes "It's been a long time coming, but Apple has finally readjusted the price of apps in Australia to match pricing in the U.S. While they remain more expensive than in the U.S., premium apps have still received a price-cut, with $8.99, $9.99 and $11.99 apps dropping to $8.49, $9.49 and $10.49, respectively. Movies and music, meanwhile, remain unchanged. In recent months, Apple has come under fire from consumer watchdogs, angry customers and even the Australian Government for its local price markups."
Cloud

Amazon Releases Cloud-Based Music Service 222

c0lo writes "Right after rumors that Google was preparing to take on iTunes service with a digital music store of its own, Amazon has announced that it's entering the fight with a cloud-based music service of its own. From the article: 'Amazon Cloud Drive is a "personal disk drive in the cloud," while Amazon Cloud Player is, well, a Web-based music player. That's right--Amazon Cloud Drive will be something like Google's rumored digital music locker, a cloud-based storage system for all of your tunes.'"

Comment Re:Good for US economy (Score 1) 617

Over the last 10 years, the global economy has moved apx. 1 *billion* people out of poverty. Think of the equivalent of USA + geographic Europe undergoing the industrial revolution and following 100 years in 10.

So Americans are losing their jobs - cry me a river.

Maybe if your corporations wern't tying up huge parts of your economy in cash reserves (about USD $1 trillion worth atm, effectively stuck in mattresses), while at the same time reducing wages (and thereby consumption), your economy would be more healthy. Yeah - US corporations clearly need more tax cuts.
And don't even get me started on the economic logic of having a military spending equivalent to the sum of the *17 other biggest military spenders* in the world. (2009 numbers)

Yeah, that's right. You're spending about as much as China, UK, France, Russia, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Italy, India, South Korea, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Spain, Turkey, Israel and Greece do *combined*

I'd look to other things than globalization and outsourcing jobs as the cause of your economic worries.

Slashdot Top Deals

It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one.

Working...