Comment Re:Back it up with a little detail helps. (Score 1) 260
He might get sued for that.
Nokia Fears Carriers May Try To Undermine N900 307
An anonymous reader writes "Nokia is worried that networks may reject selling the N900 because it won't allow them to mess with the operating system. Nokia has previously showed the N900 running a root shell and it appears to use the same interface for IM and phone functions. Meanwhile, Verizon is claiming that 'exclusivity arrangements promote competition and innovation.' Is it too late to explain to people why $99+$60/month is not better than $600+$20/month?"
Comment Surprised? (Score 3, Insightful) 384
Ahh, the hypocrisy of our democracy.
What's In an Educational Game? 160
An anonymous reader writes "I work at a non-profit whose mandate is to increase science literacy and awareness. One of the methods that we've started exploring is in making free, online educational games. Our target demographic for the games is kids aged 8-12, but there is no reason the games could not also appeal to a broader age range. What would you look for in an educational game? Does length and depth of gameplay matter to you, or would you rather play a trivial game with subconscious educational value?"
Comment Re:And they wonder why..... (Score 1) 299
Neither GM nor Chrysler will "get it". Why should they? They have governed by finance pros instead of by engineers.
I'm an engineer, and the marketing department at my company will always get over double the budget of my design dept. This is normal, and simply a question of marketing. It has nothing to do with any mismanagement of GM at all, actually. Seth Godin's blog, although usually vague and general, gives a bit of insight into this matter. Moral of the story: People don't buy what's best, people buy what they want. GM is just providing an option to cater to something people would want, and making good money doing it. It's not like they were sacrificing any performance for the add-on. If anything, they're managing their resources even better by doing this.
Doctors Fight Patent On Medical Knowledge 205
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Doctor's groups, including the AMA and too many others to list, are supporting the Mayo Clinic in the case Prometheus v. Mayo. The Mayo Clinic alleges that the patents in question merely recite a natural phenomenon: the simple fact that the level of metabolites of a drug in a person's body can tell you how a patient is responding to that drug. The particular metabolites in this case are those of thiopurine drugs and the tests are covered by Prometheus Lab's 6,355,623 and 6,680,302 patents. But these aren't the only 'observational' patents in medicine — they're part of a trend where patents are sought to cover any test using the fact that gene XYZ is an indicator for some disease, or that certain chemicals in a blood sample indicate something about a patient's condition. There are even allegations that certain labs have gone so far as to send blood samples to a university lab, order testing for patented indicators, then sue that university for infringement. Naturally, Prometheus Labs sees this whole story differently, arguing that the Mayo Clinic will profit from treating patients with knowledge patented by them. They have their own supporters, too, such as the American Intellectual Property Law Association." Prometheus doesn't seem to be a classic patent troll; they actually perform the tests for which they have obtained patents.
Submission + - Amazon Shows Need for Open eBooks Standards (daniweb.com) 1
rsmiller510 writes: "When Amazon deleted content from Kindle Readers last week without warning or permission, it showed the power the company's proprietary format gives them over Kindle owners and crystallized the need for open eBook standards."
Software Glitch Leads To $23,148,855,308,184,500 Visa Charges 544
Hmmm2000 writes "Recently several Visa card holders were, um, overcharged for certain purchases, to the tune of $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 on a single charge. The company says it was due to a programming error, and that the problem has been corrected. What is interesting is that the amount charged actually reveals the type of programming error that caused the problem. 23,148,855,308,184,500.00 * 100 (I'm guessing this is how the number is actually stored) is 2314885530818450000. Convert 2314885530818450000 to hexadecimal, and you end up with 20 20 20 20 20 20 12 50. Most C/C++ programmers see the error now ... hex 20 is a space. So spaces were stuffed into a field where binary zero should have been."
Submission + - Sen. Franken asks about Net Neutrality at Hearings
blackraven14250 writes: During supreme court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, newly-appointed Senator Al Franken asked her about her stand on Net Neutrality. He questioned whether there was an "overriding first amendment right" when it came to content providers not being able to speed up their own content when they are also service providers. Sotomayor dodged the question in the same manner as the day and a half of questions before it, but it's more about Sen. Franken at this point, as he hasn't had much time to make any sort of impression to the nation as a whole what his key fights are.
Submission + - Catching Spammers in the Act (technologyreview.com) 1
wjousts writes: Technology Review has a piece on new research aimed at determining how spammers get your e-mail address.
The researchers exposed 22,230 unique e-mail addresses over five months. E-mail addresses in comments posted to a website had a high probability of getting spammed, while of the 70 e-mail addresses submitted during registration at various websites, only 4 got spammed.
The researchers exposed 22,230 unique e-mail addresses over five months. E-mail addresses in comments posted to a website had a high probability of getting spammed, while of the 70 e-mail addresses submitted during registration at various websites, only 4 got spammed.
Submission + - 12% of e-mail users have responded to spam (arstechnica.com)
Meshach writes: An article in ars technia claims that 12% of internet users have actually responded to spam messages and tried to buy items. Although I find this hard to believe it does explain why my spam folder is always full.
Comment Fox News' Twist (Score 3, Informative) 8
You can't sell a story better than this, eh? "Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies".
That "biomass" and "other organically-based energy sources" wouldn't necessarily be limited to plant material â" animal and human corpses contain plenty of energy, and they'd be plentiful in a war zone.
Comment I've put them away, but... (Score 1) 396
I am loathe to call my old toys "Childish". I love my old Zacks, Knex, Mecano and Army Men, and would readily play with them if I have not gained new and boring adult priorities, and other interests since then.
There are lots of railroad and r/c aircraft hobbyists who are far from childish.
Shit, I just proved myself wrong.
Submission + - Net neutrality doesn't exist, CRTC told (www.cbc.ca)
The_AV8R writes: "The CBC reports on hearings where Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is trying to determine what traffic management practices are "acceptable" under the Telecommunications Act. So far, Don Bowman, chief technology officer for the network technology company Sandvine Inc., urged the CRTC not to impose internet traffic management guidelines, saying "Things evolve over time. Your guidelines may become outdated."
These hearings are to continue through July 13."
Submission + - Canadian Gov't: No Expectation Of Privacy On Net (tvo.org) 2
The_AV8R writes: "In a recent interview, Peter Van Loan, the new Canadian Public Safety minister, says ISPs should be able to provide private user information without a warrant. He even goes as far as denying that his predecessor promised never to ever allow the police to wiretap the Internet without a warrant, even when presented with an audio clip proving otherwise.
The interview was conducted by Canadian tech podcast Search Engine and posted on June 26th.
He even went as far as saying, in reference to IP addresses, names, cell phone numbers or email addresses:
"[...] that is not the kind of information about which Canadians have a legitimate expectation of privacy
