I mean, there is already a swift programming language. Yes, it is not popular, but when you decide on a name for your language don't you at least google it first? Is "swift" so unbelievably cool that a name collision (even with a "small" entity) does not matter? But, yeah, it is Apple we are talking about, they probably invented the word "swift" which people and companies like SUZUKI have been copying for other uses here and there...

Go to the first team meeting and start yelling: "Defenders, defenders, defenders!"

Since most smartphone royalties are charged as a % of the price of the device, they have to do the calculation given a hypothetical device with a specific price. They chose $400, seems that seems to be near the average price of a high-end smartphone.
I know it is /., but if you have such a basic question about the article perhaps you could take a quick look...

In general I can understand basic technology royalties like LTE etc. I mean, somebody spent a lot of money developing a technology essential for a device type, so you'd have to pay to enter the market of that device which would not exist otherwise. Ok, with so many companies involved the royalties may get a bit high. But in addition to that, there are companies allowed to patent obvious things (that most of the time they did not even "invent" first) like swiping the screen, or even generic designs like rounded corners that essentially had near ZERO cost in R&D and yet either demand high royalties or try to block competitors...

I have an iPad 4, a 7" android and various other devices, but most were bought by my company and I don't really use the much apart from development. I am an avid reader though and nothing beats my Kindle for that. It does only one thing, but it is the best at it. The screen is as relaxing as a book while the weight is even less, so it is more comfortable to hold than a book, and much much more convenient at night. I've used the iPad to read a couple of comic books but it is very heavy so it does not leave many ways I can use it comfortably, plus the screen is not less tiring than a computer monitor. I miss the actual dead-tree book when I try a tablet, but I always prefer Kindle versions. Oh, and the Kindle battery lasts forever. Overall, it has made it possible for me to read more books than before having it, as it makes it more comfortable when lying on the bed, and more convenient to carry with me some books at all times. Why would I want to trade any part of the excellent experience the Kindle offers as a reader? Why should the one device I have that does one thing perfectly, try to do a lot more that other devices already do anyway? You want to take handwritten notes, annotations, voice recognition? Get something like a Galaxy Tab. It has all that already.

What about the people who made this nice GM ad seen in John Oliver's show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... ;)

Apart from the fact that finding what caused a hull loss helps preventing future accidents, I would certainly give a buck to find out what happened just out of curiosity and I bet at least 60 million other people would as well. That is on top of the 30 bucks I give every month to help combat hunger, and various other charities. It is not one or the other. If you want to find wasted money, look at the military. USD 60M is what the military would throw on a toilet cover.

Or, unexpectedly, copulating with a virgin does cure HIV (also Cancer, Herpes and the common cold), and it is the reason only 40% of the AIDS victims are men. In that case it would be worth exploring whether we could cure female HIV using virgin boys...

I'd go with increasing the hull integrity field...

I know it is no longer sold - read the reviews to get the idea, but a pre-pre-release of this technology from Sony, could explain why this particular tape was selling for 39.2 million pounds each, while masquerading as a simple DV tape.

Maybe it is just me, but why does the article look like it is written for 8-year olds? From the layout to the writing and includes errors that show the writer is not really an amateur astronomer. For example they used an image to show "piggyback" mount. Well, they took an image from a webpage that is titled Questar telescope piggyback mount, only from that article they took the image WITHOUT the piggyback mount! There are better articles about Isaac Roberts, the ones I had read were better. But of course it wouldn't be /. tradition if the summary linked the best ones!

His point is that there is no infiniter infinitest, but there ARE degrees of infinity. If you read it again in relation to the post it responds to you will get it.

Well, of course, otherwise they will lose this great excuse for a price hike.

Also, unless their billing system is completely ridiculous, an employee account would only be able to switch users to a lower existing plan (e.g. some sort of concession), and I doubt that even their most discounted plans lose money. In the end, they claim to have lost 2.4 million (not clear if it is in less than a year) out of 16 billion annual revenue - so, what is it, a 0.015% price increase? But anyway this is Comcast...

I mean, the earth had a lab in the scale of hundreds of millions of square kilometers, performing concurrent "experiments" over millions of years in order to produce life. Do you think a random creation experiment can give results in a human lab in just a few years?

And dangerous. Just make IMEI be on read-only memory so that it is not over-written, and then, instead of rejecting stolen phones you can even pinpoint them and send a cop to pick them up along with the thief... All the technology is already there, the only problem is that there are no rules that make carriers tell you (or even the police) where your stolen phone is and who has it (in many countries SIM cards are not anonymous by law).

Oh, and since a TA/RA is work, the cost to the US is not the missed tuition, but the opportunity cost. Someone who gets a place and is trained in a US University then gets to use that training abroad.