Comment Light Source? (Score 1) 132
Okay, the tiny camera is good, but I didn't see any mention of a light source.
It's kinda, you know, dark in there.
It's kinda, you know, dark in there.
Comment Re:First You need Internet, not phone, access. (Score 1) 247
Speaking as an ISP employee (Wireless), you are almost certainly looking to the wireless folks to save you. We are almost exclusively servicing customers that will NEVER be served by cable/DSL providers. And it has a lot less to do with greed, and a lot more to do with return on investment. Some of the towers we put up, we don't start profiting on until a good 4-5 years after we've done so. I can't even imagine what the rate of return would be for other technologies. Obviously not enough for them to feel it's worth it.
Comment Use more bandwidth to enjoy media? (Score 5, Insightful) 247
At a time when ISPs are moving to cap bandwidth usage, and these companies are moving to streaming-only ideas, am I the only one cringing?
Don't get me wrong, I love my streaming media, but ISPs seem to really hate it.
Don't get me wrong, I love my streaming media, but ISPs seem to really hate it.
Submission + - Fukushima: What happened and what needs to be done (bbc.co.uk)
IndigoDarkwolf writes: The sometimes confused media coverage around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant left me wont for a good summary. Apparently the BBC felt the same way, and delivers with an overview starting from the earthquake and concluding with the current state of the troubled reactors.
Comment Re:You know I lost a friend to banana allergy (Score 1) 256
Relax. At least you didn't lose your friend to a banana allegory.
Buuuzziiiiiiiiiiing!
Buuuzziiiiiiiiiiing!
Comment Re:He saves the human race time and time again . . (Score 1) 615
"Have a cigar!"
Tech Specs Leaked For French Spyware 212
An anonymous reader writes "With the 'three strikes' law now in effect in France, the organization tasked with implementing it, Hadopi, has been working on technology specs for making the process work — and those specs have now leaked. It appears to involve client-side monitoring and controlling software, that would try to watch what you were doing online, and even warn you before you used any P2P protocol (must make Skype phone calls fun). It's hard to believe people will accept this kind of thing being installed on their computers, so I can't wait to see how Hadopi moves forward with it. It also appears to violate EU rules on privacy."
Submission + - Google CEO forecasts end of anonymity on Internet (readwriteweb.com)
e065c8515d206cb0e190 writes: In yet another scary statement on privacy, Google CEO Eric Schmidt explains the amount of information that is out there can successfully identify individuals.
From the article:
"If I look at enough of your messaging and your location, and use Artificial Intelligence," Schmidt said, "we can predict where you are going to go."
"Show us 14 photos of yourself and we can identify who you are. You think you don't have 14 photos of yourself on the internet? You've got Facebook photos! People will find it's very useful to have devices that remember what you want to do, because you forgot...But society isn't ready for questions that will be raised as result of user-generated content."
From the article:
"If I look at enough of your messaging and your location, and use Artificial Intelligence," Schmidt said, "we can predict where you are going to go."
"Show us 14 photos of yourself and we can identify who you are. You think you don't have 14 photos of yourself on the internet? You've got Facebook photos! People will find it's very useful to have devices that remember what you want to do, because you forgot...But society isn't ready for questions that will be raised as result of user-generated content."
Why Wave Failed 350
Florian Wardell submitted a little discussion piece about Why Wave Failed. He blames marketing and the staged rollout. Personally I think that what killed it was that I should have transparently been able to see my gmail inside wave. Requiring a separate window guarantees that I wouldn't use it regularly. Had I been able to read my regular mail in the same UI, I might have been tempted to use it more.
Comment The Blame Game (Score 3, Funny) 161
Sure, so now when the world ends, we'll just blame it on Jupiter!
"Hey, Jupiter, why'd you lose weight?"
"Hey, Jupiter, how come you eat so much?"
"Hey, Jupiter, what happened to that cute red spot? Did you get it removed? Because I really thought it was sexy."
Why don't we just leave Jupiter alone, and quit being so judgmental?
Comment Worded poorly, and not news (Score 2, Insightful) 393
The article is just worded poorly. It implies that he actually contracted a computer virus, just like any human virus.
All he really did was just implant a chip in his hand that had a virus on it. Then he demonstrated that the chip would actually transmit the virus. Which isn't really a huge shock, since he was using it to communicate with other devices in the first place. According TFA, he used it for security passes and his phone.
So, at some point, he turned this into: "Pacemakers are at risk"....which, since they're not communication devices...no, no they're not.
Sounds to me like someone lost their grant money or something, and was trying to justify eating doughnuts for 3 years and doing nothing else.
All he really did was just implant a chip in his hand that had a virus on it. Then he demonstrated that the chip would actually transmit the virus. Which isn't really a huge shock, since he was using it to communicate with other devices in the first place. According TFA, he used it for security passes and his phone.
So, at some point, he turned this into: "Pacemakers are at risk"....which, since they're not communication devices...no, no they're not.
Sounds to me like someone lost their grant money or something, and was trying to justify eating doughnuts for 3 years and doing nothing else.
Apple Reverses iPad "No Cash Purchase" Policy 377
ZipK writes "After a few days of bad publicity, Apple has reversed its no cash purchase policy, explaining that the policy was originally implemented to limit the number of iPads an individual could buy during the introductory period of short supply. Now that supply has caught up with demand — and the story has hit front pages and gained national attention — Apple has reversed its policy, and taken the opportunity to put a bow on the story by giving the formerly scorned Diane Campbell a free iPad."
Comment Tabletop gaming (Score 1) 180
I'm really looking forward to using this for tabletop gaming. I'd like to see someone come up with an extension for drawing maps quickly, because everything else you need, is there. You can slip notes to the players, have everyone working on separate things at once, roll dice (with modifiers), and all from your browser. The interface is almost limitless in what it can do for a DM/GM. I would agree that the practicality is lacking in the business world, but this thing is going to be a major hit for tabletop gaming.
Submission + - Surrogate robot for telepresence unveiled
An anonymous reader writes: IEEE reports [http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/051810-anybots-qb-new-telepresence-robot] that Anybots, a robotics company based in Silicon Valley, is unveiling today its QB telepresence robot. The $15,000 robot uses a custom two-wheel self-balancing system and can drive at 3.5 mph. It has a 5 megapixel camera on its head and also a laser pointer that shoots green light from one of its eyes. The user can control the robot surrogate from a browser and drive around the office, go to meetings, and spy on co-workers.
Submission + - Apple store refuses payment by cash 1
linuxwrangler writes: Diane Campbell, who is disabled, on a fixed income, and has no credit-cards saved enough to buy an iPad. But when she took her cash to the local Apple store they refused to sell one to her. It turns out that Apple policies prohibit cash purchases of iPads. Even the involvement of the media consumer advocates hasn't swayed Apple.
