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Comment: Re:Interesting methodology... (Score 1) 357

by Joren (#37952500) Attached to: Hardware Running Android Fails More Than iPhone, BlackBerry Hardware

So... what this study is telling me is that, if I want my phones to be considered reliable, I can just create a mobile operating system that's so confusing and has so many software problems, that any hardware calls I DO get will be dwarfed by the sheer quantity of calls from people stymied by crashing programs and bad interface designs, and will therefore have a lower percentage of hardware-related calls. I suppose it's too much to ask for something like support calls per thousand units sold, broken down by problem type?

And yes, the actual article uses percent of support calls made as the sole deciding factor to rank which platform is most unreliable. I'm beginning to understand why nobody reads the articles here... you really aren't missing much.

Comment: Interesting methodology... (Score 1) 357

by Joren (#37952438) Attached to: Hardware Running Android Fails More Than iPhone, BlackBerry Hardware
So... what this study is telling me is that, if I want my phones to be considered reliable, I can just create a mobile operating system that's so confusing and has so many software problems, that any hardware calls I DO get will be dwarfed by the sheer quantity of calls from people stymied by crashing programs and bad interface designs, and will therefore have a lower percentage of hardware-related calls.

I suppose it's too much to ask for something like support calls per thousand units sold, broken down by problem type?
Android

Hardware Running Android Fails More Than iPhone, BlackBerry Hardware 357

Posted by Soulskill
from the almost-as-if-they-weren't-all-made-by-the-same-company dept.
hazytodd writes "Repairs to Android smartphones cost wireless carriers $2 billion per year according to a new year-long WDS study that tracked 600,000 support calls around the globe. Android's popularity and the introduction of a number of low-cost smartphones has put a strain on the wireless business model, WDS noted in its report. 'Deployment by more than 25 OEMs and lower-cost product coming to market is leading to higher than average rates of hardware failures and, in turn, return and repair costs.'"
Youtube

UMG uses DMCA to get Bad Lip Reading parody taken 3

Submitted by
Joren
Joren writes "Bad Lip Reading is an independent producer known for anonymously parodying music and political videos by redubbing them with his humorous attempts at lip-reading, such as Everybody Poops (Black Eyed Peas) and Trick the Bridesmaid (Obama). According to an interview in Rolling Stone , he creates entirely new music from scratch consisting of his bad lip readings, and then sets them to the original video, often altering the video for humorous effect and always posting a link to the original off which it is based. Although his efforts have won the respect of parody targets Michael Bublé and Michelle Bachman, not everyone has been pleased. Two days ago, UMG succeeded in getting his parody Dirty Spaceman taken down from YouTube, and despite BLR's efforts to appeal, in his words UMG essentially said "We don't care if you think it's fair use, we want it down." And YouTube killed it.So does this meet the definition of parody as a form of fair use? And if so, what recourse if any is available for artists who are caught in this situation? Are UMG's actions a justifiable attempt to defend their rights under the law, or should this be seen as an attempt to get content they don't like removed from the Internet?"

Comment: Re:Silly. (Score 1) 247

by Joren (#37528212) Attached to: Returning Power From Electric Cars To the Grid

Only application that I can figure for this being anywhere remotely useful would be to use vehicles as generators when grid power is out

There was a documentary about this on NHK (Japanese broadcaster)... In the aftermath of the disaster in Japan, some of the victims were using electric cars as portable generators to power chargers for cell phones so that people could call home. There was even some kind of ad hoc relief organization set up around people bringing in EVs from outside in order to do this.

Mitsubishi has also released a device for its iMiev vehicle that allows homes to use power from the car. Nissan's Leaf also got a lot of press coverage because of a similar adapter they were developing (may be out now, I don't remember) - supposedly an electric vehicle at full charge can power a Japanese home for an entire day (including nonessentials like TV). This is also getting a lot of attention due to the power crises in Japan; the car can be used as a power source during peak hours and recharge while off-peak. Not sure how smart that is for battery life, though, nor do I know how they deal with the grid issues you mentioned. I imagine it would be similar to using a home solar panel as a supplemental source, which is becoming more common in Japan. Again, not sure what they do to interface with the grid, but I know they can sell power back to the grid as well as use it for themselves.

-- Joren

Security

WordPress.org Hacked, Plugin Repository Compromised 110

Posted by CmdrTaco
from the ok-that's-kinda-scary dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Back in April hackers gained access to the WordPress.com servers and exposed passwords/API keys for Twitter and Facebook accounts. Now, hackers gained access to Wordpress.org and the plugin repository. Malicious code was found in several commits including popular plugins such as AddThis, WPtouch, or W3 Total Cache. Matt Mullenweg decided to force-reset all passwords on WordPress.org. This is a great reminder for all users not use the same password for two different services."
The Military

Libyan Rebels Weaponize Power Wheels Toys 310 Screenshot-sm

Posted by samzenpus
from the play-time-is-over dept.
Danny Rathjens pointed out a story about the DIY weapons created by Libyan rebels. One of the more interesting is a machine gun drone created from a Power Wheels-style ATV. Rebels outfit the toys with a small cannon and attach controls via long wire. A solider can hide while he uses a small television and simple controls to move the vehicle and fire the gun. A similar system is also outfitted to a toy truck with a machine gun on top.
Government

CIA Declassifies Pages From Their Cookbook 119

Posted by CmdrTaco
from the my-spell-checker-exploded dept.
AngryNick writes "The Washington Post reports today on the declassification of some of the CIA's oldest secrets: Do you want to open sealed envelopes without getting caught? According to one of the six oldest classified documents in possession of the Central Intelligence Agency: 'Mix 5 drams copper acetol arsenate. 3 ounces acetone and add 1 pint amyl alcohol (fusil-oil). Heat in water bath — steam rising will dissolve the sealing material of its mucilage, wax or oil.... Do not inhale fumes.'"

Comment: Gloria Gordon Bolotsky - ENIAC "Rosie" (Score 4, Informative) 113

by Joren (#35148218) Attached to: Rediscovering WWII's Top-Secret Computing 'Rosies'
Randomly saw this article from 2009 a few minutes before seeing this Slashdot story. Seems she had quite the career:

"Gloria Gordon Bolotsky was a gifted mathematician who, after working for the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York, moved to the University of Pennsylvania for a position at its engineering school. She was chosen for a secret project that would use her skills and moved with the group in 1947 to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland."
Television

Japanese Supreme Court Rules TV Forwarding Illegal->

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes "If you use anything like a Slingbox in Japan, you may be dismayed to find out that a Japanese maker of a similar service has been successfully sued by Japan Broadcasting Corp. and five Tokyo-based local TV broadcasting firms under copyright violations for empowering users to do similar things. TV forwarding or place shifting is recording and/or moving your normal TV signal from its intended living room box to your home computer or anywhere on the internet. Turns out that Japan's Supreme Court overruled lower court decisions confirming fears that to even facilitate this functionality is a copyright infringement on the work that is being transferred."
Link to Original Source
Security

New Mega-Leak Reveals Middle East Peace Process 760

Posted by samzenpus
from the like-a-sieve dept.
An anonymous reader writes "There's been yet another mega-leak, this time of 1,600 papers describing the Israeli/Palestinian peace process negotiations. It's independent of Wikileaks and came to light via al-Jazeera, showing perhaps that the mega-leak meme is here to stay whatever happens to Assange. The papers show a weak Palestinian side offering ever greater concessions to Israel, which flatly rejected this as being insufficient: 'We do not like this suggestion because it does not meet our demands,' Israel's then foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, told the Palestinians, 'and probably it was not easy for you to think about it, but I really appreciate it.'"

Comment: Re:Not the most flattering portrayal... (Score 5, Funny) 378

by Joren (#34974892) Attached to: Why Eric Schmidt Left As CEO of Google?

Because everybody is a corporation?(!)

Corporation as a construct are intended to behave in psychopathic manors. Most people on the other hands are not psychopaths,

Then that's a problem, because with the economy as it is I don't think we have the resources to design and build psychopathic manors large enough to house each corporation. Plus, the work required to ensure that each manor was sufficiently psychopathic... nevermind the environmental impact statements...

Bug

Microsoft Confirms Zero-Day Hours After Exploit 53

Posted by CmdrTaco
from the that's-sum-sploit dept.
CWmike writes "Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday an unpatched vulnerability in Windows just hours after a hacking toolkit published an exploit for the bug. A patch is under construction, but Microsoft does not plan to issue an emergency update to fix the flaw. The bug was first discussed Dec. 15 at a South Korean security conference, but got more attention Tuesday when the open-source Metasploit penetration tool posted an exploit module crafted by researcher Joshua Drake. Metasploit says successful attacks are capable of compromising victimized PCs, then introducing malware to the machines to pillage them for information or enlist them in a criminal botnet."

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